Structure of agricultural holdings

European Commission Eurostat

Description

Belgium 2003
Agriculture and fisheries

Sujets

• Belgium
• Sciences et techniques

Informations

• Publié par: EUROPEAN-COMMISSION-EUROSTAT
• Nombre de lectures: 17
• Langue: Россию

Extrait

Statistics

in focus

AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES

26/2004

C o n t e n t s Table 1  Labour forceError! Bookmark not defined.

Table 2  Agricultural holdings Error! Bookmark not defined.

Table 3  Land use..Error! Bookmark not defined.

Table 4  Livestock..Erro r! Bookmark not defined.

Table 5  Non agricultural activity. Error! Bookmark not defined.

 Manuscript completed on: 27.10.2004 ISSN 1562-1340 Catalogue number: KS-NN-04-026-EN-N © European Communities, 2004

Structure of agricultural holdings Belgium 2003 z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z A farm structure survey was carried out in all EU Member States in 2003 (2002 in Poland). The detailed results are now available for 10 Member States: Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Results for the other Member States will become available in the course of the next six months. This Statistics in Focus is the first of a series of country-specific publications, all following the same structure.

* * *

In Belgium, in May, 2003, almost 53 000 agricultural holdings had an economic size of at least one ESU (European size unit)* , which means a 14% decline compared to 2000. - These holdings employed 71 500 AWUs (annual work unit), the equivalent of 71 500 persons working full time; - they made use of 1.4 million ha of agricultural area, which is on average 26.4 hectare per holding (compared to 22.6 ha in 2000).

Amongst these 53 000 agricultural holdings, - 20% made use of less than one AWU, while 69% made use of 2 or more AWUs; - 25% used less than 5 ha, while 3% used more than 100 ha; - 20% were mixed holdings, while 80% were specialised: cattle fattening and rearing 17%, dairies 16%, various grazing livestock 11%, field cropping 16%, horticulture 9% (of which almost half under glass), pigs and poultry 6%, permanent crops 5%; - about 1% practised organic farming.

Amongst the 49 400 sole holders - 14% were women; - 41% were aged 55 or more  the smaller the farm size is higher the proportion of older holders; - 9% had another gainful activity as major occupation.

1000 holdin s 18

16

14

12

10

8

6

4

2

0

1-<2

Number of holdings

2-<4

4-<8 8-<16 16-<40 40- >=100 <100 ESU*

1000 ha 700

600

500

400

300

200

100

Agricultural area

0 1-<2 2-<4 4-<8 8-<16 16-<40 40- >=100 <100 ESU*

* ESU measures the economic size of the holdings (see methodological notes).