Providing farmers with effective risk management tools and increasing the productivity of factors of production, while limiting negative effects on the environment, is an important challenge for the current EU agricultural policy. The aim of this research is to identify and evaluate the relationship between crop insurance and land productivity in the context of environmental effects. The study covered farms with crop insurance participating in the Polish FADN system. The article uses the TOPSIS method of organizing objects. We classify farms in terms of land productivity and examine the relationship between these results and the value of insurance coverage. In our conceptual and empirical framework, we recognize that there is a mutual relationship between crop insurance, land productivity and the environment. Our empirical results show that the level of insurance coverage may support the increase in land productivity, indirectly affecting the environment. Farms with the highest productivity level were characterized by an average value of insurance that was double that compared to farms with the lowest productivity level.

The topic of farms that deal with environmental constraints is an ongoing agricultural policy issue, including within the Common Agricultural Policy. We propose empirical evidence based on a sample of Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) farm households, evaluate the influence of chosen factors on financially sustainable farm development and verify less-favoured area (LFA) farms’ growth compared with non-LFA households. To specify farm households, we use the Sustainable Growth Challenge (SGC) model and DuPont decomposition based on financial measures and indicators that were adopted from corporate finance. It is concluded that the differences in SGC and revenue growth values between LFA and non-LFA farms mainly results from the system of subsidising LFA farms that receive compensation for farming in areas with adverse environmental conditions. Generally, the impact of agricultural policies on LFA and non-LFA farms is significant and may weaken the effect on LFA. With the exception of education, other sociodemographic factors do not highly influence farm efficiency. Along with improvements in the quality of human capital (e.g., higher education level), awareness of subsidies, and debt and innovative solutions increases. The interest in precision agriculture and agriculture 4.0 is also growing, which directly translates into better technological and financial efficiency of farms.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse capital structure and its dynamics for farms in Poland, a leading European Union producer. The theoretical framework is based on the trade-off and pecking order theories of capital structure. We use data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), which is representative of Polish professional farms during the period 2009–2018. We adopt a dynamic partial adjustment model using the generalized method of moments in order to explain the financing of farms through debt. The results show that Polish farms exhibit low target levels of debt, which they adjust dynamically, thus partially validating the trade-off theory. While size and growth opportunities positively influence the indebtedness of farms, profitability and land have the opposite effect. Polish farmers therefore use available internal funds, especially retained earnings, as a substitute for debt, in line with the pecking order theory.

The main objective of this article is to assess the potential of financial innovations as a tool for strengthening the resilience of the agricultural sector in Poland, with particular emphasis on the role of mixed financing, and to identify factors influencing farmers’ propensity to implement these innovations. Our attention is focused on mixed instruments represented by a combination of grants with loans or credit. This research is based on a critical literature study method, a logistic regression model, and a direct survey method using a structured questionnaire survey. The results show that the implementation of an innovative financial instrument combining a grant with a loan or credit has the potential for development. It is perceived by farmers as a reliable and attractive way of financing. The propensity to utilise this instrument has been demonstrated to increase significantly among farmers for whom agriculture is the main source of livelihood and who have previous experience with credit. The influence of farmers’ perceptions of insurance as a risk management tool, as well as the age of farmers, is also a critical factor in this analysis. Less interest in this financing option is characteristic of farmers with traditional, extensive agricultural production. Our research identifies market trends, contributes new data, and provides an understanding of the impact of different factors on the propensity to use an instrument combining subsidies with a loan or credit, providing new insights into complex decision-making mechanisms in agriculture. The results of the research can be useful for policymakers and financial institutions to better tailor innovative financial product offerings to farmers’ needs.

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of selected determinants on various categories of profitability in the Polish agriculture. To answer this question, we employed a unique panel of 78 entities. We found that subsidies had a negative effect on profitability of large farms. Moreover, they did not detect a significant impact of variables related to farm operator. Financial surplus to liabilities had a positive impact on both ROS and ROA. Moreover, the significance of using the risk management tools and shaping the ratio of rented land to total land are underlined as important managerial implications. Diagnostics of the model indicated the advantage of the models with fixed effects (FE) over the models with random effects (RE).

For the European Union, the course of the Community’s energy and climate policy as well as changes in the objectives and priorities of the Common Agricultural Policy, as reflected, among others, in rural development programs subject to ex ante, environmental and ex post evaluation, should be considered. Individual EU countries are still implementing their own programs focused on improving energy efficiency, energy modernisation and supporting renewable energy, and they also intervene in the energy market on an ad hoc basis, as was the case after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. This article fits into such a broadly understood research perspective, and its primary goal is to identify the impact of the costs of energy consumption and the reimbursement of excise tax on motor fuels on the operational durability and financial sustainability of 103 farms belonging to the Polish FADN network, which in 2017–2021 implemented modernisation projects under the rural development program. Logistic and linear multivariate regression were used to estimate the strength, direction and significance of correlation relationships. It was found that relative energy costs were significantly negatively correlated with financial sustainability only in the linear model, while the impact of excise tax return was positive but not significant. Thus, an empirical proof of the advisability of a possible public intervention aimed at making farmers’ access to energy cheaper was obtained. All public interventions in agricultural energy use should be subject to careful and systematic ex ante, mid-term and ex post assessments based on sound program theory. It is necessary to identify the cause-and-effect chains, in which the regression proposed in the article may be helpful.