Impact of the “Bonuses for Young Farmers” Measure Under Rural Development Program 2014-2020 on the Efficiency and Competitiveness of Farms

The aim of the article is to assess the effects of the implementation of the sub-measure “Sup-port for young farmers to start their business”, type of measure “Bonuses for Young Farmers” under the Rural Development Program 2014-2020 on the results of farms and their competi-tiveness. In 2017, the group of farms that joined the implementation of the “Bonuses for Young Farmers” measure included 84 farms. It was a research sample and a panel at the same time. The control group consisted of farms of young farmers who did not benefit from sup-port under the Rural Development Program 2014-2020 in the research years, i.e. in 2017 and 2021 (latest FADN results). The subject of the farm panel research was: production potential, production organization, production and economic results, efficiency of use of production factors. During the analysis, it was found that the production potential of young farmers’ farms in both samples in 2017 was similar. The effect of the support was to increase the pro-duction potential in 2021 in the research sample by an average of 35%. Farm income in 2017 was similar in both farm samples. In 2021, differences in farm income levels were even greater. Income in the research sample increased by 211% and was by 149 percentage points higher than in the control sample. Land productivity in the research sample increased by 75.5% and labor productivity by 102.7% and was higher than in the control group by 44.6 and 53.4 percentage points, respectively. Labor profitability in the analyzed years increased in the research group by 220%, and in the control group by 71.7%. Evaluation of the support for young farm-ers' farms in the “Bonuses for Young Farmers” measure indicated that thanks to the support, their production potential increased and their production and economic results improved and, as a result, their competitiveness increased.