Sustainable agriculture - the potential to increase wheat and rapeseed yields in Poland

Poland represents a country with relatively low agricultural productivity but high potential, particularly for certain crops. The aim of our study was to: (i) Show the potential to increase crop yields to sustainable levels of wheat and rapeseed in Poland based on simulations in the Global Agro-Ecological Zones (GAEZ v3.0) model (ii) Show the yield gap for wheat and rapeseed for Poland (iii) Compare yield gaps in Poland with yield gaps of neighbouring counties: Germany, Czech Republic, and Slovakia (iv) Discuss the potential of agricultural productivity increase along with challenges and pragmatic requirements associated with increasing agricultural productivity in Poland To our knowledge, this is the first study that discusses spatially sustainable intensification of agriculture in Poland and critically assesses opportunities pertinent to such intensification. The results show that Polish agriculture can play an important role in contributing to sustainable agricultural productivity increase in a resource-constrained world. The results presented here also demonstrate that yields can even be doubled, yet significant investment and relevant know-how for agriculture must be provided.