Poland: agricultural news week 40
In our news letter this week read about high level meeting of 11 agricultural ministers during Polagra fair in Poznań, problems with apple harvesting due to heave rains and about the progress in the agricultural census that is right now taking place in Poland. Enjoy!
Rains make apple harvesting difficult
The apple harvest season in Poland is in full swing, unfortunately the rainy weather does not allow the fruit growers to continue working in the orchards.
The rainy aura lingers over Poland, thus making apple harvest difficult. According to forecasts, also the next week is marked by rain. When the rains are short, the growers are still able to continue harvesting. Of course, this is paid for with breaks at work or the workers leaving the field several times, but in the case of continuous rainfall, there is no chance of work progress.
Workers situation
The intense rainfall that is currently taking place in the warecko-grójec region which is the biggest orchard region in Poland, makes it completely impossible to continue the work on the harvest. The unfavorable weather situation causes nerves for fruit growers who have been struggling with difficult weather conditions since spring. The employees have no reason to be satisfied either. Not going out into the field for half a day does not give them the expected earnings. It is even worse for those who are not housed on the spot on the farm and, for example, are borrowed for a given day.
Fruit quality
The current rainfall is very likely not to have a positive effect on the quality of the fruit. All-day rainfall is likely to wash away the protective pre-harvest treatments. Additionally, increased humidity may contribute to the development of secondary apple scab infections. In an orchard where stains on fruit can be found, despite prior chemical treatment, the conidial stage of the fungus may form, which at the current humidity and temperature may become a source of secondary infections or reveal itself when storing apples as storage scab.
Source: SadyOgrody.pl
Talks on the CAP in V4 during the POLAGRA fair
Polish Minister of Agriculture pointed out that the ministers participating in the debate expressed a very broad convergence of views in their assessment of the future of the Common Agricultural Policy.
The summit of agriculture ministers ended with the signing of a joint declaration. In the declaration, ministers expressed their conviction that a shift towards a sustainable agricultural economy is necessary to achieve the goals of the Green Deal, including the goals of the Farm to Fork Strategy and Biodiversity, but they are convinced that the level of ambition defined in both strategies and the degree of their inclusions in future strategic plans should be realistic and achievable, in line with the CAP financing decisions, in particular the unequal distribution of direct payments.
- Each country has a different specifics, the size of farms, climatic conditions, type of crops, and therefore greater flexibility is needed to take into account the national and regional specificity when choosing actions for the environment - emphasized the head of the Polish Ministry of Agriculture.
On the occasion of the summit of the Ministers of Agriculture of the Visegrad Group in Poznań, bilateral meetings are also held. Polish Minister spoke with Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food of Slovenia, Alexandra Pivec. Also Polish-Hungarian talks took place. The Polish side was attended by Szymon Giżyński, the secretary of state, and Zsoltan Feldman, the Hungarian secretary of state. The ministers signed a Memorandum on Polish-Hungarian cooperation in the field of agricultural vocational training. The document is a summary and consolidation of the already developed contacts of agricultural schools in both countries. At the same time, it creates new, wider opportunities for cooperation for modern vocational training in agriculture.
11 agriculture ministers attended the meeting during Polagra fair: 4 ministers of the Visegrad Group countries - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as ministers: Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovenia. Seven of them came physically to Poznań. The others connected via the Internet.
You can read more here.
Source: gov.pl
Over a dozen thousand registered farms already
Since 1st of September Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS) is conducting The General Agricultural Census. It will last until November 30, 2020 and will cover the entire country.
During the first few days GUS received already several thousand answers.
The Central Statistical Office faced a great challenge to communicate the Census properly for three months and to encourage farmers to enter the census online. GUS was getting ready for the census online, regardless of the pandemic, because it wanted to be modern. This form of census is also cheaper. The pandemic has added an extra dimension. The collected data are of significant importance for shaping the country's development policy.
The General Agricultural Census is carried out using the following methods: Internet self-census, through the census form available on the website of the Central Statistical Office, consisting in the verification, updating and supplementing of the data - (nazwa.pl); self-enumeration by phone - by calling the census hotline and using supplementary methods carried out by enumerators, i.e. a telephone interview conducted by a census enumerator; direct interview conducted by an enumerator equipped with a portable mobile device.
Participation in the census is obligatory. Failure to participate in it may result in the imposition of a fine specified in the Act on official statistics.
Source: Puls Biznesu