Change in the Level of Agricultural Development in the Context of Public Institutions’ Activities—A Case Study of the NASC Activities in Poland

Agricultural development is determined by various factors, such as environmental, economic, demographic, or social circumstances. In order to present the level of this development as com-prehensively as possible, a multidimensional analysis should be carried out with an appropriate methodology. In this article, a taxonomic approach known as the Hellwig’s method was used to determine the level of agricultural development. The area of research was the territory of Poland, divided into voivodships, which are the main units of the administrative division of the country. The development of agriculture thus determined was correlated with activities pursued by the National Agricultural Support Centre (NASC), an institution responsible for the management of agricultural real estate owned by the State Treasury in Poland. The results showed that the NASC’s activities are related to the level of agricultural development in every voivodship. The investigated model of rural space management was shown to be a rational one, performing well in today’s market conditions. The proposed methodology could adapt to similar situations and can be used in similar research on rural areas.


Introduction
According to estimates, food provided by agriculture should feed 5.8 billion people, hence agricultural development is an important issue [1]. The Food and Agriculture Organization has declared to eliminate malnutrition and famine in the world by 2030 [2]. Foresight analyzed 40 projects and programs in 20 countries, between the years 1990 and 2000; 10.39 million farmers and their families benefited from this program. Attention was paid to the participation of government agencies and organizations supporting socioeconomic and sustainability development (sustainability) [3].
Innovativeness is an important factor in agricultural development as it helps to achieve sustainable development. However, according to the to-date research, imple-mentation of innovative solutions depends on external and internal factors of agricul-tural development in a given country [4].
Another important element of agricultural policy is the impact of programs, agricultural reforms as well as policies on land markets and, more specifically, control over strategic land for food production [5]. Usually, agricultural policies do not consider the fact that farmers' ability to earn extra income is a determinant for maintaining sus-tainable land management. The possibility of securing land ownership and long-term renting, according to the research, has an impact on the economic growth [6]. It is therefore necessary to increase the efficiency of land use by preventing the allocation of agricultural and forestry land to non-productive purposes, which necessitates the es-tablishment of public The National Agricultural Support Centre implements the state policy in the following areas: creation and improvement of the area structure of family farms and development of strategic companies of the Treasury, implementation of innovations in agriculture and agri-food industry, stabilization of agricultural markets, and promotion of Polish agri-food products. Apart from statutory tasks, it also performs other delegated tasks. The main objective of the National Agricultural Support Centre is to implement tasks resulting from the state policy, in particular in the scope of the implementation and application of agricultural support instruments, active agricultural policy and rural development. The thematic scope of activities of the National Agricultural Support Centre is presented in Figure 2. The main objective of the study was to determine the level of agricultural development in Poland. In Poland, activities associated with the management of the Agricultural Property Stock of the State Treasury are carried out by the public institution called the National Agricultural Support Centre (NASC). Therefore, the authors additionally studied the relationship between changes in the level of agricultural development between 2006 and 2018 and activities of the NASC. Based on the review of the literature [7,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38], it can be concluded that advancement in agriculture entails elements concerning land use, socio-demographic factors, economic factors describing agriculture, and factors determining the level of agricultural production. Following the perusal of the literature, the authors determined which features would be reliable and usable in the study. These are integral environmental, social, and economic impacts on agriculture. However, there is no single set of characteristics to be derived from the literature that would be able to describe the development of agriculture; instead, there are merely indicators based on environmental, social, and economic impacts on agriculture, which must be reliable. Figure 1. The state has authorized the National Agricultural Support Centre (NASC) to perform the tasks; source: [29].

Materials and Methods
The National Agricultural Support Centre implements the state policy in the following areas: creation and improvement of the area structure of family farms and development of strategic companies of the Treasury, implementation of innovations in agriculture and agri-food industry, stabilization of agricultural markets, and promotion of Polish agri-food products. Apart from statutory tasks, it also performs other delegated tasks. The main objective of the National Agricultural Support Centre is to implement tasks resulting from the state policy, in particular in the scope of the implementation and application of agricultural support instruments, active agricultural policy and rural development. The thematic scope of activities of the National Agricultural Support Centre is presented in Figure 2. The National Agricultural Support Centre implements the state policy in the following areas: creation and improvement of the area structure of family farms and development of strategic companies of the Treasury, implementation of innovations in agriculture and agri-food industry, stabilization of agricultural markets, and promotion of Polish agri-food products. Apart from statutory tasks, it also performs other delegated tasks. The main objective of the National Agricultural Support Centre is to implement tasks resulting from the state policy, in particular in the scope of the implementation and application of agricultural support instruments, active agricultural policy and rural development. The thematic scope of activities of the National Agricultural Support Centre is presented in Figure 2. The main objective of the study was to determine the level of agricultural development in Poland. In Poland, activities associated with the management of the Agricultural Property Stock of the State Treasury are carried out by the public institution called the National Agricultural Support Centre (NASC). Therefore, the authors additionally studied the relationship between changes in the level of agricultural development between 2006 and 2018 and activities of the NASC. Based on the review of the literature [7,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38], it can be concluded that advancement in agriculture entails elements concerning land use, socio-demographic factors, economic factors describing agriculture, and factors determining the level of agricultural production. Following the perusal of the literature, the authors determined which features would be reliable and usable in the study. These are integral environmental, social, and economic impacts on agriculture. However, there is no single set of characteristics to be derived from the literature that would be able to describe the development of agriculture; instead, there are merely indicators based on environmental, social, and economic impacts on agriculture, which must be reliable. The main objective of the study was to determine the level of agricultural development in Poland. In Poland, activities associated with the management of the Agricultural Property Stock of the State Treasury are carried out by the public institution called the National Agricultural Support Centre (NASC). Therefore, the authors additionally studied the relationship between changes in the level of agricultural development between 2006 and 2018 and activities of the NASC. Based on the review of the literature [7,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38], it can be concluded that advancement in agriculture entails elements concerning land use, sociodemographic factors, economic factors describing agriculture, and factors determining the level of agricultural production. Following the perusal of the literature, the authors determined which features would be reliable and usable in the study. These are integral environmental, social, and economic impacts on agriculture. However, there is no single set of characteristics to be derived from the literature that would be able to describe the development of agriculture; instead, there are merely indicators based on environmental, social, and economic impacts on agriculture, which must be reliable.

Materials and Methods
The level of agricultural development was determined using the Hellwig's taxonomic method, and the NASC activities were determined based on the NASC statutory tasks and on quantified based on data from annual reports published by the NASC. The area of the research consisted of the voivodships of Poland, which are the main units of the country's administrative division. To determine the level of agricultural development, the authors used all available data from the agricultural censuses, which are a reliable source of information because they are prepared by Statistics Poland (GUS). The GUS is the central office of government administration dealing with the collection and dissemination of statistical information on most areas of public life and some areas of private life. The data are required to be provided by the relevant legal regulations (the Act on Public Statistics and the Statistical Research Program announced annually). The choice of diagnostic variables that would allow us to provide the most complete presentation of the level of agricultural development was guided by two factors. Firstly, a literature analysis was carried out and variables that met the requirement of being usable in in taxonomic methods were selected [39,40]. Secondly, the decision was also influenced by data availability. Information that can be obtained from Statistics Poland is aggregated for different administrative levels. Most data can be found for the whole country; less information is available pertaining to single voivodships (which is the level analyzed in this study). Not all data were available for the year 2006, which was chosen as the first year of analysis. However, it was possible to collect data for 43 diagnostic variables, which refer as widely as possible to different aspects of agricultural development and simultaneously meet the condition of a variable that can be used in taxonomic methods. The list of diagnostic variables accepted for the analysis is presented in Table 1. Table 1. Diagnostic variables used in the research.

Symbol
Diagnostic Variables (Expressed as Indicators)

X1
Share of agricultural land in the voivodship (%). X2 Land requiring reclamation per 100 ha of agricultural land (ha) X3 Non-use area per 100 ha of agricultural land (ha] X4 Population density in rural areas per 1 km 2 X5 Rural population of working age in % of total population X6 Registered unemployed persons living in rural areas per 1000 people X7 Balance of migration in rural areas X8 Working in agriculture per 100 ha of farmland X9 Investment outlays in agriculture per 1 ha of farmland (PLN) X10 Gross value of fixed assets in agriculture (PLN million) X11 Agricultural producers entered in the producers' register X12 Number of tractors in agriculture X13 Agricultural land area per 1 tractor (ha) X14 Farm buildings put into use X15 Consumption of mineral or chemical fertilizers (NPK) per pure component (tons) X16 Structure of global agricultural production (Poland -100%) (%) X17 Structure of agricultural commodity production (Poland -100%) (%) X18 Structure of agricultural output -crop production (Poland 100%) (%) X19 Structure of agricultural output -animal production (Poland 100%) (%) X20 Structure of agricultural commodity production -plant production (Poland 100%) (%) X21 Structure of agricultural commodity production -animal production (Poland 100%) (%) X22 Area sown (thousand ha) X23 Area of grain sown (thousand ha) X24 Area of rape and colza seeding (thousand ha) X25 Potato cultivation area (thousand ha) X26 Sugar beet cultivation area (thousand ha) X27 Harvest of cereals (thousand tons) X28 Rape and colza harvest (thousand tons) X29 Potato harvest (thousand tons) X30 Sugar beet harvest (thousand tons)

X31
Area of ground vegetable crops (thousand ha) X32 Harvest of ground vegetables (thousand tons) X33 Fruit tree cultivation area (thousand ha) X34 Fruit harvests from trees (thousand tons) X35 Slaughterhouse livestock production per 1 ha of farmland (kg) X36 Cow's milk production per 1 ha of farmland (liters) X37 Production of hens' eggs per 1 ha of farmland (units) X38 Purchase value of agricultural products -plant products [ Our review of the literature indicated that linear ordering methods are most often used in studies similar to ours. As a result, the Hellwig's method, an approach proposed in 1968 by the Polish scientist Zdzisław Hellwig, was chosen for this study. This method is common in such type of research [25,30,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]. The Hellwig's method is based on the calculation of a synthetic development index which allows the user to present a situation of diversity in the level of the phenomenon studied, covering many categories, e.g., economic, social, ecological, and spatial ones [51,52]. The adopted research methodology is characterized by great transparency, as the results can be presented with a single numerical value. This is a great advantage of this method and a premise for its selection [53]. The construction of a synthetic developmental index requires several stages, starting from the selection of a set of objects and diagnostic variables, through normalization of features, determination of stimulants and destimulants, to the calculation of the index value as a distance from the constructed developmental index.
The numerical description of the set of objects can be presented in the form of an observation matrix where x ij means the value of the j-th variable for the i-th object (i = 1, 2, . . . , n; j = 1, 2, . . . , m).
For the collected diagnostic variables, it should be examined whether these variables are characterized by sufficiently high variability by eliminating quasi-constant variables. For this purpose, the coefficient of variation V can be calculated for each j-th variable. Its value is a relative measure of dispersion, and it is calculated by using Equation (2) below.
where: x j -the arithmetic mean of the j-th variable (3), S j -standard deviation for the j-th variable (3) From the set of variables, unequal variables can be eliminated.
where V* is the critical value of the variation coefficient. The value of V* was arbitrarily set at 0.10.
Afterwards, the strength of the relationship between the other variables should be tested. For this purpose, the correlation between variables must be determined with the value of the Pearson coefficient. Highly correlated variables are removed from the data set (Pearson's coefficient > 0.9) [54].
The Hellwig's method requires the linearity of diagnostic variables. Therefore, covariance should be calculated, which is a measure of the joint variability of two random variables. The covariance of variables shows how variables are linearly related to each other. Positive covariance indicates a positive linear relationship between variables, while negative covariance indicates the opposite. If the variables are not linearly related, the covariance value is close to zero. The covariances must be calculated for the analyzed variables.
In the next step, the variables must be unified. To unify variables, the characteristics should be normalized by standardizing it, according to Equations (2) and (4).
where: x j is the arithmetic mean of j-th variable (3) and S j is the standard deviation for the j-th variable (3). This way, a matrix of standard values of the Z characteristics is obtained in Equation (6) below.
where z ij is a standardized value of x ij . The matrix (6) formed is the basis for determining the reference object P0. It is an abstract object (e.g., a city) with standardized values z 01 , z 02 , . . . ,z 0j , where: The P0 object obtained in this way is treated as a development pattern.
In the next step, the Euclidean distances of the tested objects from the determined pattern should be calculated. This can be completed based on Equation (8).
For the D 10 , D 20 , . . . , D n0 distance values obtained in this way, the average value should be calculated (9).
As well as standard deviation (Equation (10)): The level of sustainable development is obtained from Equation (11) below. where: A string of d 1 , d 2 , . . . , d n values is obtained in this way, using the range (0,1).
The higher the measure of the di value of the tested object (i.e., its values are close to the pattern), the higher its level of agricultural development is. The lower the di value is (i.e., the values of the tested object are further away from the pattern), the lower its level of agricultural development.
Two parameters of the taxonomic measure can be used to classify the examined objects, according to the level of agricultural development: a geometric mean (d i ) and standard deviation (S di ). Six agricultural development classes of voivodships can be distinguished in this way, depending on the value of d i : • 6th class (the lowest level of agricultural development): To determine the impact of the activities pursued by the NASC on the development of agriculture, the authors used the NASC source data published for public scrutiny in the NASC annual reports. Table 2 contains data on the activities of the NASC in the field of land management of the land owned by the State Treasury until 2006 and Table 2 contains activities until 2018.
The data from Tables 2 and 3 on land sold, transferred free of charge, contributed to the companies, and divested in other forms will be used to determine the correlation with the changes in the level of social and economic development in the voivodships of Poland, created with the Hellwig's method. The case of Poland is interesting because agricultural development in the post-communist countries was the responsibility of the State Agricultural Enterprises (SAE). After the political transformation in Poland, state agencies were established to take care of the land owned by the State Treasury. The agency preceding the NASC not only supervised the sale of agricultural land, but was also involved in the social activation of former state farm communities. Currently, the NASC plays an important role in agricultural land management. Due to legal constraints imposed on land sales (item in Tables 1 and 2), which protect farmers from uncontrolled land buyout and ensure the safety of food production for society, it mainly leases land (the activity is described as "divested in other forms" in Tables 1 and 2). However, it still has an important social impact as it has the possibility to transfer land free of charge for social purposes (item in Tables 2 and 3) or to transfer it as a contribution to companies (also item in Tables 2 and 3), which is one of its statutory tasks. This role of the NASC in agriculture should be correlated with social and economic development; these activities should have an impact on rural development.

Results and Discussion
Following the methodology presented in the previous chapter, to achieve the research objectives set in the article, the first step was to determine the level of agricultural development and its changes in the years 2006-2018 in each of the 16 voivodships in Poland.
The process of verifying the indicators for usefulness and usability in the Hellwig's method, described in Section 2, involves the rejection of indicators based on the requirements of the method and consists of three stages: The results obtained from the calculations are presented in Figure 4 and Table 4. The largest sale of land occurred in Warmińsko-Mazurskie and Zachodniopomorskie Voivodships, with over 170 thousand hectares sold. A moderate level of sales was achieved by Wielkopolskie, Pomorskie, and Dolnośląskie Voivodships, where between 90 and 105 thousand hectares were sold; the remaining voivodships did not sell more than 55 thousand hectares each. With land transferred free of charge to municipalities, mainly for social purposes, most of the land was given away in Dolnośląskie Voivodship, whereas the remaining voivodships most often donated above 1 thousand hectares, not exceeding 6 thousand ha, exceptŚwiętokrzyskie Voivodship, where only 725 hectares were transferred. Land "contributed to companies" is the group of activities where the least land was transferred, except Dolnośląskie Voivodship (7819 hectares) and Wielkopolskie Voivodship (528 hectares). The level of support to companies did not exceed 65 hectares donated to a company, and no land was transferred under this category in Łódzkie Voivodship. With respect to land permanently disposed of in other forms, more than 100,000 hectares of land were transferred in Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodship, which can be considered an exceptional case.
Pomorskie and Zachodniopomorskie Voivodships each donated 24 thousand hectares and Podlaskie, Lubuskie, Wielkopolskie, and Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodship each donated between 8 and 9 thousand hectares; in the remaining voivodships, less than 1.5 thousand hectares were donated, with the exception of Lubelskie Voivodship, where 3 thousand hectares were donated. Between 2006 and 2018, most land was sold in Zachodniopomorskie and Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodships, while most land free of charge was transferred in Dolnośląskie Voivodship. As for the category "contributed to companies," most land was transferred in Dolnośląskie Voivodship, and most "divested of in other forms" (usually lease) land was recorded in Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodship.  Comparing the statistical data of agricultural land transfer from individual voivodships (Tables 2 and 3) regulated by the NASC with the data on agricultural development in these areas obtained by the Hellwig's method (Table 4), the following results were obtained (also illustrated in Figure 4). Comparing the statistical data of agricultural land transfer from individual voivodships (Tables 2 and 3) regulated by the NASC with the data on agricultural development in these areas obtained by the Hellwig's method (Table 4), the following results were obtained (also illustrated in Figure 4). , as well as changes in the ranking were based on raw "di" data. "Contribution to companies" always negatively correlated and the other NASC activities always positively correlated, except for the change in the ranking. "Contribution to companies" is the least active way of land management and, therefore, its impact on the level of agricultural development is not demonstrable. How- Since the agricultural level classes did not change between 2006 and 2018, the ranking of the voivodships in 2006, 2018, between 2006 and 2018, as well as changes in the ranking were based on raw "di" data. "Contribution to companies" always negatively correlated and the other NASC activities always positively correlated, except for the change in the ranking. "Contribution to companies" is the least active way of land management and, therefore, its impact on the level of agricultural development is not demonstrable. However, the impact of the sale, lease or free transfer of land is visible. When the rankings are compared, it emerges that as the NASC activity increases, so does the level of agriculture in a given voivodship.
However, while comparing changes in the rankings, the correlation proves to be inversely proportional, which means that the NASC activities were conducted mainly in areas where the level of agriculture was the lowest. This proves that the measures were addressed mainly to the weakest voivodships and have been implemented consistently; therefore, the position in the rankings of voivodships where there is a large range of land transfer is improving. According to J. Guilford's scale, the 2006 ranking was at level III, i.e., moderate correlation (significant dependence), except for paid transfers in other forms, where the correlations with the 2006 ranking reached level II, i.e., low correlation (clear relation). In the 2018 ranking with free contributions to companies, it is at level II, i.e., low correlation (clear relation). Land sold and transferred in other non-free forms reached level III, i.e., moderate correlation (significant relation). If we compare the data on agricultural development with the data from the 2006-2018 ranking, we observe level III of correlation, i.e., moderate correlation (significant dependence), except for contribution to companies, which is at level II of correlation (clear relation). If we compare it with a change in the ranking, all the features will be at correlation level II, except for transfer free of charge, which was at correlation level III, i.e., a significant correlation. However, if we use the scale described by Cohen [55], the correlation for transfer free of charge will even reach level four, i.e., 0.43, which is a high correlation (significant relationship).

Conclusions
The methodology used in the research is applied to determine the level of agricultural growth [56][57][58][59] (used the findings from these studies to build the matrix of diagnostic features used-tab 1), although it is also useful to study the level of social and economic development [30], and the level of sustainable development [30,56]. The National Agricultural Support Centre may have an impact on the level of agriculture achieved [60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67]. The conducted research justifies the following final conclusions, where the results obtained are summarized:

•
The proposed methodology can be used in similar research on rural areas. The conducted research confirmed the suitability of the Hellwig's method for determination of the level of agricultural development in a given voivodship. This method can also be used to assess the level of development of any administrative unit (e.g., in Poland, these are municipalities, districts, and voivodships). It can be also used to determine and compare the level of development of different countries. By changing the range of diagnostic variables, it is also possible to assess the level of social, economic, or sustainable development using the Hellwig's method. It is only necessary to select an appropriate range of variables in each case. The level of development obtained in this way can be correlated with the activities of various institutions or organizations (a given country, the EU, or local authorities) in order to determine the relationship between such activities and a particular level of development.

•
The results obtained in this study showed that the NASC's activities are related to the level of agriculture development in individual voivodships. It was shown that such a model of land management is reasonable and performs well in today's market conditions. • Agricultural development level indicators should be correlated with institutional public actions. This justifies and confirms the validity of the activities conducted by such public institutions. The results obtained in the research can be used by public institutions, e.g., when reporting their activities and applying for funds for the next years of their activity.

•
The NASC activities have an impact on the level of agriculture development in Poland.
The results obtained indicate that the voivodships with higher NASC activity are better evaluated in terms of agricultural development.

•
The impact of programs, reforms, and agricultural policies on the land markets is visible because legal changes in Poland have given preference to land lease over land sale.

•
The right of priority and the right of pre-emption enables the NASC to acquire strategic land, owing to which the NASC is in control of strategic land for food production, maintenance of sustainable land management, securing land ownership and the possibility of its long-term use in a specific way, combating climate change, ensuring food safety, or preventing environmental degradation, which can all be seen as thoughtful measures undertaken to reduce the risk of abandonment of business activity. The concept of multifunctional land use supports the NASC's modeling system through economic and social monitoring.
Determination of the level of agricultural development and identification of factors influencing the dynamics of change are important for the proper functioning of any country. Agricultural land management systems are supported by the activities of various state institutions. The proposed research methodology can be used to study relationships between the activities of state institutions and the level of agricultural development. The proposed methodology could adapt to similar situations and can be used in similar research on rural areas, so the authors plan further experiments to confirm this hypothesis in future work.