Optional Payments of the First Pillar Under Cap Vs the Average Amount of Support Per Farm

Subject and purpose of work: The article analyses the influence of optional instruments applied in Poland as part of the first pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy on the average support provided to farms in individual provinces. Materials and methods: The study was based on data from the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture as well as quantitative and analytical methods, especially simulations and comparative variant analysis. Results: The optional instruments applied in Poland increased the average support provided to farms in central and eastern Poland. The average amount of support paid per farm would have been bigger in northern, western and southern provinces if optional instruments had not been implemented. Primarily, the introduction of both redistributive payment and production-related support (all forms of this support taken together) resulted in a decrease in the average aid per holding in the same group of provinces and at the same time an increase in this size in other provinces (compared to the situation in which the amounts for financing these instruments would be distributed under the single area payment). Conclusions: The analysis of the influence of redistributive payment and coupled support on the average amount of financial aid per farm in individual provinces shows that the consequences of using these instruments were very similar to each other in their effect on the variable under study.