REVIEW PAPER
Sustainable Agriculture – the Potential to Increase
Wheat and Rapeseed Yields in Poland
Jolanta B. Królczyk1, Agnieszka E. Latawiec1,2,3, Maciej Kuboń4
More details
Hide details
1Department of Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Production Engineering and Logistics,
Opole University of Technology, Mikołajczyka 5, 45-271 Opole, Poland
2International Institute for Sustainability, Estrada Dona Castorina 124, 22460-320 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
3School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, NR4 7TJ, Norwich, Norfolk, UK
4Department of Agricultural Engineering and Informatics, Faculty of Production Engineering and Energetics,
University of Agriculture in Kraków, Balicka 116B 30-149, Kraków, Poland
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2014;23(3):663-672
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Poland represents a country with relatively low agricultural productivity but high potential, particularly
for certain crops. The aim of our study was to:
(i) Show the potential to increase crop yields to sustainable levels of wheat and rapeseed in Poland based
on simulations in the Global Agro-Ecological Zones (GAEZ v3.0) model
(ii) Show the yield gap for wheat and rapeseed for Poland
(iii) Compare yield gaps in Poland with yield gaps of neighbouring counties: Germany, Czech Republic, and
Slovakia
(iv) Discuss the potential of agricultural productivity increase along with challenges and pragmatic requirements
associated with increasing agricultural productivity in Poland
To our knowledge, this is the first study that discusses spatially sustainable intensification of agriculture in
Poland and critically assesses opportunities pertinent to such intensification. The results show that Polish agriculture
can play an important role in contributing to sustainable agricultural productivity increase in a
resource-constrained world. The results presented here also demonstrate that yields can even be doubled, yet
significant investment and relevant know-how for agriculture must be provided.