Rozważania o pojęciu i procesie dezagraryzacji polskiej wsi
Deliberations about the Concept and the Process of Deagrarianisation of the Polish Countryside

Summary/Abstract: The experience gained while presenting the results of the project “Monitoring of rural development” indicated that the concept of “deagrarianisation” is not properly understood. The article explains that the process of decreasing the share of agriculture in the production of GDP, as well as in providing labour and income of rural population is quite common. Its consequences include a progressive social division of labour, increase in prosperity, etc. It can be achieved by population surplus migrating to cities or by creating non-agricultural jobs in rural areas (or moving these jobs from urban to rural areas). Both of these extreme concepts have certain advantages, but they also involve specific costs. In fact we observe more and more new, non-agricultural job opportunities emerging in the countryside as well as more and more migrations from countryside to cities. The proportion of deagrarianisation forms depends on local conditions. The process of socio-economic deagrarianisation of the countryside should not be associated with the importance of agriculture in the economy as a means to provide goods needed to meet basic needs. Also, the criterion of evaluation of the deagrarianisation process should not be associated with the macro evaluation of agriculture when the analysis concerns food self-sufficiency. Deagrarianisation is associated with a category of labour productivity in agriculture and not with the importance of agriculture as a supplier of essential goods.

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