The European Green Deal strategy, prepared in 2019, involves a number of challenges for European agriculture. These challenges are broadly linked to a need for agriculture to undertake actions in order to improve environmental and climate protection, which will require changes in agricultural practices and the currently observed industrialization processes of agriculture that are destabilizing ecosystems and climate. In view of the diversity of agriculture and its impacts on the environment, it is important to identify the challenges faced by the EU Member States. The aim of this paper is to identify the main environmental and climate challenges that agriculture in Poland will have to face due to the current European Green Deal strategy and its objectives, taking into account the organizational changes in this sector so far and the existing forms of environmental protection in rural areas. The paper is based on empirical data from the Farm Structure Survey conducted by Statistics Poland in 2005, 2007 and 2016, data on greenhouse gas emissions of agricultural origin gathered by the National Centre for Emissions Management (KOBiZE), data from the European Commission, the General Directorate for Environmental Protection and the Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation—State Research Institute concerning the delimitation of the Natura 2000 areas in Poland and the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics—National Research Institute on three national variants of High Nature Value Farmland areas delimited for the needs of the European Commission, as well as data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development regarding the delimitation of the less favoured areas with high natural value. In addition, a literature review was conducted indicating the links between agriculture, the environment and climate. The results of the study illustrate the state of Polish agriculture and the changes in this sector in the context of environmental and climate challenges. The results also identify the most difficult areas that will require practical solutions in the future to implement the European Green Deal strategy in Poland. The findings will provide an important basis for policy makers in terms of effective support of agriculture and for the scientific community with regard to agricultural research, which should be particularly developed in order to be able to adapt the agricultural sector to new challenges.

Organic farms should, by definition, place particular emphasis on the protection of agricultural soils, landscape care and activities aimed at producing high-quality agricultural products. However, when joining this production system, the farms face many challenges in order to make these contributions to society at the expected level. The main aim of the study is to determine the scale of disproportions in production effects achieved by farms between organic and conventional production systems, taking into account the quality of natural management conditions. An equally important goal is to determine the factors in Polish agriculture that determine whether to conduct this production system. The paper aims to indicate the direction of development of organic farming in the EU, including Poland, based on the Eurostat data for 2012–2020. It was noted that the current development of the organic farming sector in EU member states has been at different rates. In Poland, its development strength largely depends on the presence of ANCs. Nearly ¾ of organic utilized agriculture area (UAA) is located in communes with a large share of them. Organic farms achieve lower production effects in comparison to conventional farms, and their disproportions also depend on the quality of natural farming conditions. In Poland, the personal competences of farmers are also an important determinant in joining organic farming.

Increasing the European Union’s (EU) current efforts to protect the natural environment, especially in the context of protecting agricultural soils, is one of its basic challenges. The European Commission (EC) is now ready and willing to strongly strengthen protection of the natural environment. Activities are primarily supported by the European Green Deal (EGD) strategy from 2019 and its thematic strategies, as well as the currently revised Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2023–2027. Further direct support for farms from Areas facing Natural or other Specific constraints (ANCs support), compensating for them at least some of the additional costs and lost income related to the difficulties for agricultural production, will be one of the most important actions of the future CAP in the context of the protection of agricultural soils. It should be added that, in recent years, all EU Member States, including Poland (in 2019), have carried out a mandatory new delimitation of ANCs according to the same rules established by the EC Joint Research Center (EC JRC) under the CAP 2014–2020. The aim of the study is to characterize the organizational situation of Polish agriculture, to indicate the direction and strength of the changes taking place in it, as well as the main determinants of its further functioning in areas (communes) with a particularly high saturation of current ANCs, as compared to other areas, with and without ANCs. It is also important to present the economic consequences and development opportunities for farms conducting agricultural production in these areas. The results of the study show the condition of Polish agriculture and changes taking place in this sector in areas with different saturation and specificity of ANCs related to challenges for environmental protection included in the EGD strategy and the current and future CAP. The research results will also provide an important basis for policymakers in undertaking effective agricultural support in ANCs and for the scientific community to develop agricultural research that can meet the most pressing challenges faced in the areas. It should be noted that the study emphasizes the significance of the new institutional economics, the postulates of which can provide solid support for the actions taken to better protect ANCs.

Institutional environmental measures play a fundamental role in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023–2027, which primarily focuses on eco-schemes and for which the EU Member States must allocate part of their direct payment budget. The total budget under eco-schemes in the EU is an important part of Pillar I of the CAP 2023–2027. The aim of this study is to determine the capacity of Polish agriculture in ANCs to adopt practices under eco-schemes in the first year (2023) of the CAP 2023–2027. In the international literature, there is an apparent paucity of such analyses conducted for the newly designated ANCs in the EU Member States based on the European Commission’s guidelines under the CAP 2014–2020 and applicable under the CAP 2023–2027. Practices under eco-schemes are now fundamental for EU agriculture, increasing soil fertility, using rational fertilization and, as a result, improving the quality of products offered to consumers. It was pointed out that at this moment in ANCs, the use of eco-schemes is not satisfactory. The conclusions emphasized that in the EU, including Poland, eco-schemes should be implemented by as many farmers as possible, regardless of the size of the farm they have and the natural conditions in which they carry out agricultural production.

Agriculture in the European Union is a large energy user, dependent on fossil fuels and energy-intensive inputs. Farm incomes are vulnerable to volatile energy prices and climate risks, which threaten their economic resilience. The reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) introduces eco-schemes as a central instrument that may reduce energy intensity and dependence on fossil-based resources. This review examines how CAP instruments—and eco-schemes in particular—are analyzed as drivers of farm energy use, energy intensity, and economic resilience. It maps the literature within a three-pillar framework (energy indicators, CAP instruments, income/resilience outcomes) and identifies where the intersection of these dimensions remains weakly exploredand income/resilience outcomes) and identifies where the intersection of these dimensions remains underexplored. We classify publications by combinations of these three dimensions and by the main groups of CAP instruments. The results reveal a narrow three-pillar core, a dominance of studies that link CAP to income and resilience without explicit energy indicators, and only fragmentary evidence on the energy effects of policy instruments. Research on eco-schemes focuses predominantly on environmental effects and institutional design, while the energy dimension is integrated only to a limited extent. Drawing on this evidence, we propose a conceptual framework linking eco-scheme design, the structure of on-farm energy costs, and the resilience of farm incomes.

The aim of this study was to assess the ability of Polish farms to absorb practices within eco-schemes in Poland in the first year of operation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023-2027. The type of practices used, their number and the scale of use were determined, taking into account the natural conditions in which the farms implementing them operate. The assessment was made taking into account the division of farms according to the size of utilised agricultural land (UAA) and their location in communes. The analysis concerned thirteen practices within five area eco-schemes that were available to Polish farms in the first year of the Polish Strategic Plan 2023-2027 within EU CAP 2023-2027 implementation. The data used came from the database of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture. A research method was used that involved analysing the distribution and characteristics of the beneficiary farms of eco-schemes in 2023. It was found that 1/3 of farms benefitted from such support. The size of the farm and the natural management conditions played a role in eco-scheme absorption.