Polish farmers at odds with subsidies

Date: 10/06/04

THE district of Zyrzyn is situated in the north-western part of the Lublin Province, the poorest region in the European Union. The unemployment rate is very high here (more than 20%) and the basic economic activity is agriculture. Plots of land are mostly tiny, which inhibits effective farming. Only 1% of all farms boast 15 hectares and more, with almost 40% of farms having two to five hectares.

However, just two weeks before the 15 June deadline, only 20% of farmers submitted an application for subsidies they are entitled to get from the EU's coffers, under the terms of their country's accession to the Union.

The local leaders set up a district information centre - sponsored by the Ministry of Treasury - to assist farmers on filling the forms to get EU subsidies. From 9am-9pm, seven days per week, experts from the agency of restructuring and modernization of agriculture (ARiMR) are there to provide advice.

During accession negotiations, the Polish government fought fiercely for a higher level of subsidies than the EU was prepared to offer. Its achievement was heralded at home like a huge triumph. In the first year of the country's EU membership, €800 million are to be paid to Polish farmers - some €44-106 per hectare. In 2004-06, the estimated support for the Polish countryside may reach more than €10 billion.

Paradoxically, farmers do not seem to be in a rush to get funds from the Union. One week before the deadline, only 470,000 out of 1.8 million of those eligible submitted an application. The highest figure was noted in the Podlasie Province in the east, 44%, the lowest, 18%, in industrial Silesia, with a national average of 20%.

"According to our assessments, about 60% of farmers from our region [Zyrzyn] will meet the timetable," says Jan Szczyrba, from ARiMR.

Observers say the present state of chaos and disorder - which stems in no small amount from the disdainful attitude to private property, which was the ruling principle in communist Poland - is partly to blame for this.

The maps are inaccurate and outdated, not all farms are listed in land and mortgage registers, no surveys have been made and soils have not been properly classified. The latest national census of 1997 proved to be cursory. The greatest problem is establishing factual data, as subsidies are determined according to precise information on the state of land.

To fill in one individual form takes over an hour.

"The Poles are still used to waiting in queues," jokes Jaroslaw Stefaniak, an expert from the centre. "Therefore, they postpone fulfillment of all their obligations to the last minute."

Ten farmers turned up in the local firehouse for a meeting devoted to EU subsidies. None of them had filled in the required forms in advance.

When asked about the benefits of EU subsidies, farmers from Zyrzyn smile and say that everything is in the hands of God.

"Everything will have been clarified by January next year," says the owner of a ten-hectare farm. "The government promises money, but can one trust the government?"

Such rhetoric can be heard in many places. "A Polish peasant is like Doubting Thomas from the Bible; he will not believe until he sees it with his own very eyes," says one of the village leaders.

The appeals of the church hierarchy are received with moderate enthusiasm. Jozef Zycinski, the Archbishop of Lublin, and Cardinal Franciszek Macharski of Krakow have both issued pastoral letters encouraging the farmers to grab what is offered to them.

"It is not a good time now," retorts Henryk Baranski, from Zerdz. "The intensive field works are starting. Subsidies may be an issue but it is farming that makes the core of the village life."

The agency of restructuring and modernization of agriculture counts on the repetition of the situation with the SAPARD programme, granting cash for agriculture prior to EU accession. Although the number of those applying for such aid was initially small, almost all funds were used in the end.

But Ryszard Kalisz, owner of a ten-hectare plot in central Poland, recently grabbed headlines when he declared he would give up subsidies because they collide with his vision of the world. "Free distribution of money is immoral," he said.

Some farmers are unwilling to fill in the forms for fear of revealing their property status to various government agencies. They do not believe in the validity of the personal data laws. "Who can guarantee that this information will not be transmitted to tax department or police?" inquires a farmer. "You have to be cautious in these matters," one says.

Many farmers give up the aid on the grounds that they want to keep the EU out of their business. "We are against Brussels telling us what to sow and where and what to breed."

Farmers are the only community to enjoy sizeable payouts from the Union's budget, which does not go down well with other parts of the Polish society.

"The largest number of Eurosceptics was among the farmers," says Konrad Mielcarski, a student of political science in Warsaw.

"And here comes the reward: hard cash, which they are not even eager to take. Is that not an irony of fate?"

Wieslaw Horabik is a freelance Polish journalist.

The Polish Government fought for European Union agricultural subsidies prior to accession, but the country's farmers are slow in coming forward for such payouts. Just two weeks before the 15 June 2004 deadline, only 20% of farmers had submitted an application for the subsidies they are entitled to receive from the EU under the terms of their country's accession to the Union.