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The creation of mObywatel app for farmers

‘Together with Minister Stefan Krajewski, we are looking for solutions that ensure we do not have to reduce the number of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARMA) staff during the process of changes in agriculture, simplification of applications or introduction of electronic systems and applications’, says Wojciech Legawiec, President of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture.

Publikacja: 10.09.2025 00:01

The creation of mObywatel app for farmers

Foto: Maciek Zygmunt

Dorota Andrzejewska

Reklama

ARMA is the largest paying agency in the European Union. Is it a considerable challenge to manage it?

Indeed, in other European Union countries paying agencies are regional, which means that they are more fragmented and more independent. However, we cover the entire country, which means we have 16 regional branches, 314 district offices and a head office in Warsaw, and of course a sufficient number of employees to staff all these locations, as we employ a total of almost 11,300 people.

Last year you celebrated your 30th anniversary. Over the years your institution has probably handled an enormous amount of money. How much?

It is a considerable amount – almost PLN 520 billion, which by the end of July 2025 was transferred by us to farmers, entrepreneurs and for the development of rural areas. Currently, we have loads of work at the Agency because three financial perspectives overlap. At the end of 2025, we have to settle the Rural Development Programme (RDP) for 2014–2020. We are in the process of executing projects from the National Recovery Plan (KPO) and we are in the process of announcing new calls for proposals from the Strategic Plan for the Common Agricultural Policy for 2023–2027.

You checked what beneficiaries think about you. A special survey was created. Farmers have different opinions about ARMA. Were you not afraid of criticism?

We have established a special unit at the ARMA head office – the Beneficiary Satisfaction Assessment Department, which is responsible, for instance, for collecting and analysing surveys. On this basis, we can streamline the Agency's work and improve it in various areas.

Farmers certainly expect deregulation. Can you succeed in introducing simplifications in your sector as well?

This is the expectation not only of farmers, but also of Minister Stefan Krajewski. That is why we want to streamline certain processes, as we intend to introduce many reporting elements in electronic form so that data is collected in one place and farmers have access to it at all times. This is why there are applications such as eWniosekPlus, through which farmers submit applications for direct subsidies, or the IRZPlus website for livestock owners. In order to reduce the number of visits to farms by Agency inspectors, farmers also have access to the ARMA mobile application, which allows them to confirm various obligations remotely. On behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, through our company Agro Aplikacje, we are building a farmer's website, an IT tool that makes work way more automated. It is a kind of mObywatel app for farmers.

At what stage of implementation is this website?

The website is to be completed by the end of June next year, so there is not much time left. We are satisfied with the progress of the work, as 4 out of 20 e-services were completed in June this year.

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You transfer money to farmers, but you also check whether the funds go where they should. What do these checks look like?

The most extensive checks concern direct subsidies. Here, we primarily verify whether the data declared by the farmer in the payment application is consistent with the actual situation and whether the funds are actually used correctly. The checks take the form of field inspections, but we also use modern technologies. We conduct satellite monitoring via the AMS system and drones, which allow us to know what crops are on a given plot and what agrotechnical measures are performed. As for 2025, 71,600 beneficiaries have been selected for direct subsidies checks. The most common discrepancies are primarily the inconsistency between the declared area and the area found, and crops that are different from those declared.

Agricultural drought is a problem which the industry has been struggling with for several years. Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture has managed to launch emergency aid for those who have suffered the greatest losses due to water shortages. Will this be the case this year as well?

Last year, we launched three types of support, which allowed over 58,000 farms to receive a total of over PLN 206 million. At the end of August, the Ministry launched an application for estimating losses caused by this year's drought. Once the extent of the losses is known, the Ministry is going to announce the amount of aid and the dates for applications. We are prepared to collect applications within a week and pay compensation in the following weeks. In this respect, we are already a very efficient unit. Thanks to its qualified staff in the field of satellite image analysis, the Agency supports the Ministry of Agriculture in assessing the extent of damage caused by, for example, floods and torrential rains, which allows the Minister of Agriculture to provide assistance to affected farmers faster.

The Ministry of Infrastructure has noticed the Agency's efficient operation and has proposed that you implement a programme that goes beyond rural areas and agriculture.

This ministry approached us through the Ministry of Agriculture with a request to help disburse funds from the National Recovery Plan (KPO) for subsidies for tachographs. We have taken up this challenge and are going to execute this project at the turn of the year. The investment costs from the National Reconstruction Plan for this task amount to approximately PLN 381 million. For the Agency this is not a large amount of money, so I am confident that we will complete this project successfully.

Is the Agricultural Agency ceasing to be strictly agricultural?

Together with Minister Stefan Krajewski, we are looking for solutions that ensure we do not have to reduce the number of ARMA staff during the process of changes in agriculture, simplification of applications or introduction of electronic systems and applications. Applications submitted by farmers will require less and less direct handling by employees. That is why it is important to find new tasks for the Agency. Once the legal solutions concerning land leases and active farmers come into force, the beneficiaries of the funds will be farmers who are actually productive, and there will be fewer applications submitted.

What about the final settlement of the 2014–2020 Rural Development Programme? Is there a risk that Poland will have to return some of the funds to the European Commission?

We conducted a large information campaign about this programme, sent letters, called agricultural advisers, and also contacted farmers individually to ask them to submit payment applications, additional supplements or corrections. However, we have an alternative solution if some of the applications are not processed and the money remains unused. We are going to ask the Minister of Agriculture to transfer the funds to other areas so that Poland does not have to return a single zloty to the EU.