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Abstract
The aim of the study is to determine the state of development of organic farming in Poland, including in areas (in communes) with difficult and particularly difficult farming conditions. It is also important to determine the environmental and organizational features of agriculture in communes with high saturation with organic production. For this purpose, data published by the Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection (IJHARS) for the years 2004–2020 and individual data from farms were used, as well as, in terms of communes, obtained from the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture (ARiMR) and generated on the basis of applications from farms applying for organic payments under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the years 2010–2021. The first part of the article emphasizes the role of organic farming as a supplier of public goods in the context of the new institutional economy and emphasizes the impact of institutions on the durability, continuity and stability of its functioning. The second part characterizes the state of development of organic farming in Poland in the years 2004–2021. The third part presents the situation in communes particularly predisposed to the development of this type of agriculture in the years 2010–2021. The fourth, last, part of the results indicates the environmental and organizational features of agriculture in 2021 in communes with varying saturation with organic production supported under the CAP 2014–2020. It was established that in the years 2010–2021, communes with difficult and particularly difficult farming conditions had 74.5 to 76.8% of the total area of agricultural land (UR) with organic production supported under the CAP. An important feature of organic farms from these communes was their significant average area of UR for average national conditions and often the lack of animal production or its conduct outside the principles of organic farming.