Economic and social assessment of the use of structural funds in the creation of the development of “small” farms in Poland

Irrespective of various definitions, we can certainly say that Polish agricultural farms are “small” compared to units from western European countries. The main aim of the article is to provide information about the number of farms and the types of investments made within the framework of actions addressed to “small” farms in the RDP 2004–2013 (2014–2020) and evaluation of the effectiveness of disbursing public means for this purpose. As evident from the analysis in 2004–2006, under the RDP, operation was introduced aimed at “Support for semi-subsistence farms”. From a perspective of disbursing public funds, it is possible to assess the economic effectiveness of this action as very small. In the new term financing (2014–2020) we are dealing with an obvious promotion of small and medium sized farms. However, there is concern about the economic rationale of this approach.