Poland's entry into the EU and attendant commitment to the achievement of a range of ambitious labour market and social targets have served merely to re-emphasise the need for the rationalisation of its most conspicuous socialist paradox: a private agricultural sector that, on one count, employs over one-quarter of the country's workers. Multinomial estimation on a pool of annual panels, with a sample of over 24,000 individuals, confirms the overall impression of stagnation conveyed by the published statistics. Nevertheless, the findings provide important pointers for the thrust of future policy endeavours aimed at increasing the exit rate from farming.