Determinants of Changes in Fruit Production in Farms in Areas with a Fragmented Agrarian Structure

Abstract

The main aim of the research was to identify the factors influencing the production of fruit in a region with a fragmented agrarian structure. The novelty of the article is taking into account changes over time. The importance of the research topics stems from the fact that Poland is a significant producer of many species of fruit. Part of this production is carried out on small farms. A panel model with fixed effects (FE) was used to identify the factors. The data for the model came from 18 farms from the Małopolska and Pogórze Region in Poland, which continuously, from 2005–2016, kept accounting under Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). The combination of cross-sectional data from 18 farms and a 12-year time series increased the dataset to 216 observations that formed the panel; consequently, the same research period for all farms allowed for the construction of a balanced panel. The research shows that the amount of fruit production in the researched orchard farms was influenced by the value of current assets, the cost of salaries and the age of fruit growers with which experience in running orchards was related.