Water Shortage in Polish Agriculture and Its Economic Consequences

: Water is a key factor in the development of agricultural production, both for crops and animals. Poland, one of the main producers of agricultural produce and foodstuffs in the European Union, is regarded as belonging to the group of countries with poor water resources, with the country more frequently experiencing droughts in recent years. This paper presents an overview of the issue of water management in Polish agriculture and the possible consequences of changes in this area as a subsystem of the national economy – agribusiness. The principal source of data for the analyses was information from public statistics and the State Research Institute of Soil Science and Cultivation (IUNG-PIB). The analyses show that there is an urgent need for changes to the approach to water shortages in agriculture at various levels of decision making, both with regard to agricultural policy as well as in the behaviour of farmers. The connections described here can serve as a basis for more comprehensive economic research in the field of water usage in agriculture.