WOJCIECH JÓZWIAK 10.5604/00441600.1151765 ADAM KAGAN ZOFIA MIRKOWSKA Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics – National Research Institute Warsaw INNOVATIONS ON THE POLISH FARMS, THEIR SCOPE OF IMPLEMENTATION AND SIGNIFICANCE Abstract After the accession, as compared to the pre-accession period, the Polish agriculture witnessed a growth in the volume of products manu- factured with the resources spent under intermediate consumption. Diffusion of innovations and progress related to it were among the sig- nifcant reasons for the productivity growth. The phenomenon of growth in the volume of products produced with the resources spent under inter- mediate consumption overlapped with the effects of the accession, which brought, inter alia, a considerable increase in subsidies. This was the most important factor of improvement of the competitiveness of the Polish agriculture. If before 2004 only about 25,000 farms showed any features pointing to competitive capacity, in 2007 there were already 290,000-300,000 farms of natural and legal persons, which demonstrated competitive capacity or any prospects to achieve it. It is estimated that they produce 50-60% of the national value of agricultural production. The impact of innovations on the progress taking place in the Polish agriculture could have been greater if there had been less farms fail- ing to implement innovations. These were mainly smaller farms, but this group also included about 1/3 of farms with an area of 8 or more ESU. Introductory remarks Exactly 100 years ago J. Schumpeter formulated, for the frst time, the def- inition of innovation in the economy (Kleer J. 2004). He understood this term as signifcant changes in the production function, whose essence is combining factors of production in a way different than before. He considered only the big entities to be innovative, because they can afford to create innovations that then