Poland has generally favourable conditions for agricultural production, despite low-and-medium quality soils, which are most common, and an insufficient precipitation and water deficit in some regions. A serious threat to agricultural production is inadequate environmental protection. On the other hand, the prevailing semi-intensive agricultural production and advantageous environmental conditions in many parts of Poland encourage high quality foodstuffs. The last few years have recorded a substantial progress in environmental protection. Polish farms are generally smaller and less productive than their counterparts in Germany, France and Denmark. Considerable differences across Poland are still observed in farm size, crop yields and productivity of farm animals. Poland, with its high employment in agriculture, is a leading country in the production of vegetables and produces more vegetables per capita than Germany, Denmark and France, and in fruit production comes second right after France. Polish agriculture with its semi-intensive character and low consumption of mineral fertilizers and other chemicals is already, to some extent, close to ecological agriculture and many of its products are of high quality. All that creates a high potential for agricultural exports, especially to the neighbouring countries, e.g. Germany, and for agrotourism.

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