Spatial differences in the level of absorption of Common Agricultural Policy funds by agricultural holdings in Poland over the years 2004-2006

The article offers a territorial analysis of funds acquired by Polish agricultural holdings in the years 2004-2006 via direct payments and through participation in measures of the Rural Development Programme and the Sectoral Operational Programme ‘Restructuring and Modernisation of the Food Sector and Rural Development’. The analysis was based on the data on subsidies obtained in individual spatial units (voivodeship, poviat) as expressed by two indices: PLN per farm and PLN per hectare of agricultural land. It was found that owing to the structure of payments with a predominance of area payments, those areas were preferred that had a favourable farm-size structure and a high, historically developed level of farming. Such an allocation of the EU subsidies had contributed very little to the levelling out of structural differences in Polish farming.