Zmieniająca się natura usług. studium usług produkcyjnych w rolnictwie krajów Unii Europejskiej
Authors: Kołodziejczak Małgorzata 
Published: March 2024

Introduction. The study comprises a theoretical discussion on the nature of services and the empirical part, which concerns production services in agriculture. The aim of the theoretical layer of this research is to investigate the nature of services and determine their role in the economy and in agriculture in view of the evolution in approaches to economic growth and development, as well as the paradigm of sustainable development. In the empirical layer of the study the aim is to determine the diversification in the absorption of services in agriculture and to produce a preliminary evaluation of development of agricultural services in the EU countries. In order to attain such aims the following research tasks were formulated: • evaluation of the position of the tertiary sector in the national economy • investigation of the level of absorption and type structure of production services in agriculture • determination of the degree of absorption of production services depending on selected characteristics of agriculture in the EU member countries • development of a typology of EU regions in terms of selected characteristics concerning the production potential, type of agricultural production and use of services in farms and search for relationships between classification of regions to individual types and the level of sustainability of their agriculture. Three research hypotheses were set: I. The importance of services measured by both the share of the employed in the tertiary sector in the total number of employed in the national economy and the share of services in the structure of generated gross added value were greater in the EU-15 countries, more developed economically and characterized by a greater gross added value per capita than in the EU-10 countries. II. The level of absorption of total production services in the agriculture of the EU member countries in a specified period was determined by the standard of development of their agriculture and it was greater in the EU-15 countries than in the EU-10; however, the situation within the EU-15 and EU-10 aggregates varied in this respect. III. Agriculture in the EU-10 countries in order to narrow the gap in the stage of development to the EU-15 countries and striving to meet the qualitative requirements and standards binding in the EU has been increasing the absorption of production services at a relatively faster rate than in the EU-15. Research methods and materials. In theoretical studies the deductive, dialectic and comparative methods were applied. The empirical part of the study presented the position of the tertiary sector in the national economy, followed by the quantitative characteristics of production services used in agriculture in individual EU member countries and the degree of diversification in the absorption of these services. Objects of the study included entities using agricultural services in the EU countries (EU-25) in the years 2000-2016. The study was conducted based on EUROSTAT and FADN data as well as literature on the subject. Results and conclusions. A discussion was undertaken on the applicability of the definitions of services and their classification. A new definition was proposed, taking into consideration current market and civilization conditions as well as a new classification of services, related to their impact on the level of sustainability in the economic, social and environmental sense. A classification of the sector economy and characteristics of the sectors were proposed in terms of the scope of their activity, dynamics of technological progress, the dominant importance for productivity as well as dynamics of employment and income. Results obtained in the empirical section made it possible to positively verify hypothesis I. The share of services in the generation of added value is connected with the stage of economic development of individual states and affluence (wealth) of inhabitants. Countries, which accessed the EU after 2004 were characterized by a low share of services in the employment structure and in the structure of gross added value. However, in all the countries we may observe progressing servitization of the economy, i.e. an increasing role of services both in the employment structure and in the generation of gross added value. Hypothesis II was also positively verified. The level of absorption of all the three types of production services in agriculture under investigation was greater in the EU-15 aggregate than in the EU-10. However, the situation varied in this respect within the EU-15 and EU-10 aggregates, while in EU-15 there were some countries characterized by a lower level of absorption of services than in some EU-10 countries. This confirms a relationship between the level of absorption of services and the development of agriculture; however, it also indicates the need to consider the specific nature of this sector in individual countries. This does not refute the proposed hypothesis; however, it differentiates the situation within aggregates. Within the scope concerning agricultural services (related with crop production) hypothesis III was not confirmed. The value of agricultural services was increasing faster in the EU-15 countries. In the case of agricultural services adaptation in the EU-10 countries was implemented more frequently through modernization and expansion of the machine pool, i.e. towards self-sufficiency of farms in terms of the technical operation of crop production processes. However, hypothesis III was verified positively in its scope concerning veterinary expenses and financial intermediation services indirectly measured. The rate of an increase in absorption of production services in agriculture in the case of these services in the analysed years was relatively higher (in relation to the initial status) in the EU-10 countries when compared to EU-15. Relatively high rates of increase in the value of veterinary expenses in the EU-10 countries may have resulted from the attempts by these countries to meet the qualitative criteria following their accession to the EU, while in the case of financial services it may have been connected with the incorporation of these countries in the structural funds system and the CAP. In the case of these services they may not be replaced with the farmers’ work or their machines, it is necessary to use specialized veterinary expenses, if farms are striving to meet qualitative and legal requirements concerning animal production, while the use of financial services is often necessary at investing and/or when using transfer resources available within the CAP and other EU programs.