Economics Efficiency of Farming - Lessee or Owner (An Attempt at Assessment)

The paper presents the role and importance of land lease in structural changes in agriculture and its relations to efficiency of farming. It was demonstrated that land lease was a more efficient and cheaper method of increasing farm area (production scale) than land purchase. Research was held on selected limited liability companies using leased land (1st group) and own land (2nd group), and participating in the “Ranking 300” run by the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics – National Research Institute between 2009 and 2014. Research results showed that farms run by lessees reached higher Return on Equity and Value Creation Index. The differences were not statistically confirmed, which meant that they were not significant. On the other hand, farms using own land have shown a higher level of financial security, as evidenced by higher values of liquidity ratios (current and quick) and cash flow-to-debt ratio. The hypothesis that “the lessee is more efficient than the owner” was not fully confirmed