Integrated pest management (IPM), a worldwide agricultural strategy, contains methods to control or manage agricultural pests and diseases in a more efficient way, and consequently, to obtain better quality raw materials for food production. The engagement and practice of farmers play a key role in the success of this strategy. Since January 1, 2014, Poland and other European Union countries have been obligated to apply the principles of IPM. This paper shows the results of surveys conducted in 280 randomly selected farms the year before and the year following mandatory IPM implementation. The aim of this study was to gather information about farmers’ knowledge of IPM and the most commonly used plant protection methods. Our results show that law regulations do not significantly change agricultural practice. Among the non-chemical methods farmers most often comply with are: implementing the agrochemical calendar, sowing healthy material, destroying volunteer plants, rotating crop, applying balanced fertilizer, plowing stubble and preventing excess nitrogen. Integrated plant protection is not possible without proper knowledge of diseases. This factor needs improvement in Poland. The average Polish farmer lacks the knowledge about basic cereal diseases such as powdery mildew or brown rust, though larger farm operators tend to be more knowledgeable. The results of this survey demonstrate the necessity to provide informative farmer training campaigns to promote on-farm application of IPM and to improve the knowledge of disease issues.

Climate change, including decreasing rainfall, makes cultivating cereals more difficult. Drought stress reduces plant growth and most all yields. On the other hand, consumers’ interest in ancient wheat varieties, including spelt, is growing. The aim of this work is to compare the response to drought stress between spelt (Triticum aestivum ssp. spelta) and common wheat (Triticum aestivum ssp. vulgare). Six cultivars of spelt from different European countries and common wheat ‘Bogatka’ as a reference were chosen for research. The photosynthesis process, chlorophyll fluorescence, relative water content, and the content of free proline and anthocyanins in well-watered and drought-stressed plants were measured. It was shown that the spelt cultivars ‘Franckenkorn’ and ‘Badengold’ were much more resistant to water deficit than other cultivars and even common wheat. A slight reduction of CO₂ assimilation (by 27%) and no reduction of transpiration rate, with simultaneous intensive proline (eighteen times fold increase) and anthocyanins accumulation (increase by 222%) along with a slight increase in lipid peroxidation level (1.9%) revealed in ‘Franckenkorn’ prove that this cultivar can cope with drought and can be effectively cultivated in areas with limited water abundance.

Seed treatments help reduce the pathogen load and thus improve the condition of plants from their earliest developmental stages, but they can have impacts beyond their basic fungicide protection role. In this study, we investigated how seven spring barley seed treatments affected the plants’ physiological state. The tested seed treatments differed significantly in their impacts on the vigor parameters of barley seeds and on the physiological state of seedlings under drought stress and after regeneration. Seed treatments based on substances from the succinate-dehydrogenase-inhibitors (SDHI) group did not cause inhibition of seedling growth and also display by the highest vigor index values. Using the analysis of photosynthesis-related parameters, we showed that seed treatments from the SDHI group provided a superior tolerance of the imposed drought in spring barley than other treatments. In addition to protection against abiotic stress, SDHI treatments also rendered a higher efficiency of photochemical reactions in the treated plants.

The main aim of this article is to identify and assess changes in housing poverty in the European Union (EU) in 2005 and 2013 in the context of cohesion policy. In he study of spatial differentiation of housing poverty, a synthetic measure was used. It was created with support of the TOPSIS standard method (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution). The article is prepared on the basis of statistical data from the EU-SILC surveys. The study shows that in 2013 compared to 2005, there was a significant reduction in housing poverty, especially in the EU countries which in 2005 were characterized by the highest level of poverty. However, in Romania and Latvia, high level of poverty was still maintained, particularly in comparison with the countries of Western Europe.