THE PROBABILITY OF FARMS DIVERSIFICATION ON THE EXAMPLE OF CENTRAL POMERANIA IN POLAND

Danuta Zawadzka, Agnieszka Sompolska-Rzechuła, Agnieszka Kurdyś-Kujawska

Abstract: Against the backdrop of rural decline, many farms have to find more sustainable ways of surviving. For many of them, the way to stabilize and increase income is to diversify the farm. The decision to diversify depends largely on the characteristics of the farm and the farmers themselves. The purpose of this article is to determine the factors infl uencing the probability of diversification of agricultural holdings. Data were collected in the Central Pomerania region using a questionnaire survey. Identification of factors influencing the probability of diversifi cation of farms was made using the logistic regression model. The analysis covers the diversification of production and the diversification of income sources. The conducted study shows that the decision to use diversification in farms depends on the demographic characteristics of farm owners and on their stocks. The likelihood of diversification of production increases with the number of fixed assets. It decreases, however, with the rising level of education. In turn, the likelihood of diversification of income sources increases with the reduction of the area of the farm.

Keywords: diversifi cation of production; income; logit model; source diversifi cation

Date published: 2019-04-09