Agricultural structure

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The agricultural structure concerns the economic structure of agricultural production and the living conditions in the agricultural sector ( agriculture , forestry and related branches of the economy such as fishing ).

Basics

Characteristics of the agricultural structure

The parameters of the agricultural structure include in particular

• the type of settlement
• the operational structure
• the ownership structure
• Distribution of farms by size class
• Purchase and lease prices
• the structure by workforce and age groups
• the land uses
• the market structure
• Funding institutions and instruments.

Farm structure surveys

The determination of the agricultural structure on the basis of agricultural statistical surveys forms the basis for the determination of agricultural products at regional and national level, but also the prognosis of the development and structural change in the agricultural and forestry sector . Their results represent one of the most important agricultural policy decisions at national and international level.

National: Agricultural structure and basis of the agricultural structure surveys

Europe

The agricultural policy of the European Union, which of course has by far the largest share of the Community's expenditure side through the subsidy measures , and the agricultural market organization require a Europe-wide comparability of data. The basis of the farm structure surveys was laid down in Regulation (EEC) No. 571/88 on the farm structure survey (until 2007, amendments (EC) No. 204/2006, from 2010 (EC) No. 1166/2008). Appendix III also contains the list of features for the farm structure survey, which clarifies the key data to be collected for the company and the company employees. There are also more specific regulations, such as Regulation (EC) No. 543/2009 on arable farming, Directive 2001/109 / EC on fruit growing and Regulation (EC) No. 543/2009 and Regulation (EC) No. 436/2009 for Harvest (yield and storage).

The last agricultural structure survey (AS) in all 27 countries of the European Union was carried out in 2007 only as a sample survey, but with a uniform catalog of questions:

• around 13.7 million  farms : around 29% are in Romania (3.9 million), 17% Poland, 12% Italy, 8% Spain, 6% Greece, 5% Hungary

  - this is where the still strongly agricultural territorial states of the Union appear

  However, the survey threshold was not the same in all states, in Austria around 1 hectare of used farm area, in the United Kingdom around 6 hectares. In the new member states, self-sufficiency production , which still makes up a significant proportion of total production, was also included in some cases . In addition, purely forestry operations were not counted

• About 172.5 million  hectares  (ha) of utilized agricultural area (UAA): 16% France (27 million ha), 14% Spain, 10% Germany, 9% United Kingdom and Poland, 8% Romania, 7% Hungary, all other member countries below 3%

  - This represents the states with the highest production potential

• Average size of the farms: 12.6 ha; Spreads from 89.3 ha UAA / farm in the Czech Republic to 0.9 ha in Malta

  - in the 1999/2000 AS it was almost 19 hectares of land per farm for the EU-15 , which shows the strong decrease in the product area - despite the still extensive new member states - i.e. the increased intensification

• Size structure: 70% of holdings with less than 5 ha of UAA (1999/2000 EU-15: 58%); 2% of the farms have more than 100 ha of land

  - In the EU, small and medium-sized businesses dominate (the significant increase is due to the 2004 expansion), large businesses are extremely rare, but this shows a clear north-west-south-east divide: 18% of businesses over 100 ha in Denmark and Luxembourg, 17% in France , 13% United Kingdom, southern and eastern countries mostly below 1%

• Structure of the agriculturally used area (total 172 million ha): 60% (104 million ha) arable land , 33% (57 million ha) permanent grassland , around 6% (11 million ha) permanent crops

  - with which Europe is arable- oriented, the livestock industry has decreased significantly.

  • France, Spain, Germany and Poland together have around 53% of the EU's arable land, while arable farming dominates in most EU countries
  • permanent grassland is only of greater importance in Austria, Slovenia, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Luxembourg (countries that are more cattle and dairy-oriented)
  • Permanent crops are common in the southern Member States (climatic conditions; Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Malta)
• Livestock farming :
  • 3.3 million  cattle farmers
  • 88 million head of cattle , of which almost ¹ ⁄ ₃  dairy cattle : France 19.4 million, Germany 12.7 million, United Kingdom 10.3 million head (together around half of the total cattle herd); Herd size: EU average 27 animals / keeper; Cyprus 202, Luxembourg 130, Netherlands 107, United Kingdom 105, while Lithuania 6, Bulgaria 4.5, Romania 2.5
  • The population of pigs was: Germany 27.0 million, Spain 23.4 million, Poland 18.5 million, France 14.3 million, Denmark 13.7 million; Farm size: Ireland 2,000, Denmark 1,900, Netherlands 1,350 animals / keepers
• Demography :
  • Number of employees: 18.7 million family workers  , 1.8 million non-family permanent employees

    - This means that the agricultural sector in the EU is highly family-run (90%)

  • Average age of the farm managers: 6.1% under 35, 56.8% over 55 years

    - In a global comparison, pan-European agriculture is disproportionately outdated

Austria

As an Alpine country , Austria shows some peculiarities within the agricultural structure of the European Union:

• such as the extremely high proportion of small and private forests , which means that the majority of all farmers are also foresters
• a high proportion of - naturally small, but extensive - mountain farmers , which means that grassland farming (cattle and dairy farming, forage production) is represented above average in Austria compared to arable farming and special crops
• Another specialty is a world-leading position in organic agriculture .

Most of the key data, however, are in the EU average, Austria only has the top position (in old age) in terms of the age distribution of farm managers, which is the current generation change from the traditional economic system, which has been affected by the Central European " peasant deaths " and rural exodus since the 1970s ( a generation that has mostly left agriculture), to well-trained farmers and innovative forms of business with a focus on high-class and high-priced special and niche products and direct marketing .

The last complete agricultural structure survey - based on the Federal Statistics Act 2000 - was carried out in 1999, in between only random surveys, and then again in 2010, which provides a comprehensive data set on the current structure of agricultural and forestry holdings and on agricultural production methods in Austria. These were collected by Statistics Austria in cooperation with the Federal Office for Agriculture , published in the Green Report and excerpts published online.

Data Green Report 2010:

• Agriculture and forestry operations (2007): total 187,034 (compared to 2005 -1.3%, compared to 1999 -14.0%)
  • Lower Austria 45,782 farms, Styria 42,370, Upper Austria 36,385 (together ² ⁄ ₃ , the three large agricultural producing countries), lowest number of farms: Salzburg 10,028, Vorarlberg 4,762, Vienna 699

  - with the exception of Vienna, agriculture in the smaller states of Salzburg and Vorarlberg plays an important role, but the share is relatively small due to the alpine location and the strong tourism, and full-time farmers predominate there (i.e. also conversion to full-time tourism and agricultural exodus) , in Tyrol, Carinthia, Styria and Burgenland, agriculture is often maintained despite tourism or non-industry acquisition

• Economic form:
  • Sole proprietorship ( family businesses ) 93.5%; 2.6% communities of persons (generally  agricultural communities ), 3.8% in the hands of legal persons (companies)
  • 70097 (40.1%) in the main acquisition and 104,814 (59.9%) in the  sideline (that is already scarce ² / ₅ ), the latter most Tirol and Steiermark, the lowest low and Upper Austria
• Austrian agriculture is still structured on a small scale :
  • Farm size (2007): 35.0 ha (1951 16.3 ha), utilized agricultural area 18.9 ha UAA / farm (1951 9.4 ha, EU-27 average 12.6 ha)
  • 61.5% of the holdings (114,947) cultivate less than 20 ha, only 4.0% (7,452) over 100 ha (EU-27: 70% / 2%)
  • Mountain farms : 69,424 farms (37.1% of all businesses)
• Total area cultivated for agriculture and forestry: 7,559,000 ha (Austria: 8,387,197 ha, i.e. over 90% of the country's area)
  • Agricultural area (UAA) 3,191,000 ha (38% of Austria), forest area 3,341,000 ha (40%, lower limit of 3 ha, i.e. not the entire area)
  • Agricultural area: permanent grassland : 1,731,000 ha (highest proportions in Vorarlberg 44.7%, Salzburg 36.0%); Arable land 1,389,000 ha (highest shares in Burgenland 53.9%, Lower Austria 42.1%), 66,000 ha of permanent crops (such as house and kitchen gardens, berries, wine, tree nurseries, etc. - little, but important due to the high added value ), 5,000 hectares of fallow and unproductive areas , building and courtyard areas, other commercial areas
• Main agricultural sectors:
  • Arable farming (2009): Grain 835,071 ha (61.1%), field forage 239,720 ha (17.5%), oil crops 134,024 ha (9.8%), root crops 66,296 ha (4.9%), grain legumes 21,589 ha (1 , 6%), fallow land 45,076 ha (3.3%)
  • Livestock (2009): Livestock holdings: 104,000; Livestock in Austria (2009) around 2.0 million  LU , of which ³ ⁄ _{4 are}  cattle category (73,466 keepers; 2,026,000 cows , heifers , calves ; 532,976 dairy cows , 264,547 suckler cows ), 18%  category pigs ( 38,002 keepers; 3,136,967 pieces), 8% other animal categories (especially sheep 14,596 keepers; 344,709 pieces)
  • Organic farms (2009): There are around 21,000 recognized farms in Austria with 518,757 ha of UAA (subsidized and unsupported organic farms including alpine pastures and mountain mowers ), that is 11% of the farms ( compared to 2008 + 4.6%, share of the subsidized Organic farms according to INVEKOS database 15.2%), and 16% of the total agricultural area ( compared to 2008 +5.4%); 85% of the organic farms keep cattle, 19% of the cattle are kept according to organic guidelines (dairy cows 17%, suckler cows 32%), but only 2% of all pigs, as well as 27% of all sheep and 50% of all goats. The proportion of organic farms over 25% of all farms is concentrated in the whole of Salzburg , the Tyrolean lowlands , Upper Styria , the Eisenwurzen , the Mühl - and Waldviertel , and the Ötztal Alps
• LEADER programs for the development of rural regions (funding period 2007–2013): 86 regions (88% of the national territory) with over 4.4 million inhabitants (52% of the inhabitants, almost doubled from 2000–2006)
• Demography (2009):
  • Workers in the economic sector Agriculture / Agriculture and Forestry: 171,722 annual work units  (AWU) (2008 to -1.8%), of which 140 140 AWU (-2.1%) unpaid labor ( family workers ), 31,582 AWU (-0.5% ) paid workers (4.5: 1, well above the EU average of 10: 1)
  • The total number of apprentices in agriculture and forestry was 1,257 at the end of 2009, 1,054 of them in external apprenticeships and 203 in home apprenticeships ; Agriculture  students in total (school year 2009/10): 17414; Passed maturity and diploma examinations (higher agricultural and forestry educational institutions , born in 2009): 621; Graduates from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences : over 1,000 (all departments in 2009, a total of 9,000 students)
  • Seasonal workers 8,000  work permits , Erntehelfer 7,500 work permits
  • Gender distribution: 65,589 establishments (35.1%) with female management (2005 33.6%, i.e. increase in the proportion of women by 1.5%); female students (school year 2009/10): 8605 (49%)
  • Average monthly gross income in agriculture, forestry, fishing and fish farming (2008): men 1,435 euros, women 1,046 euros; Collective contractual hourly wages of forest workers in private companies (July 1, 2009) unskilled workers over 18 years of age 8.25 euros, forest skilled workers with examination 9.69 euros (gross values, of course there are no figures for agriculture).

Other states

• Agricultural structures in Latin America

See also

• Agricultural policy , agricultural constitution
• Agricultural geography , agricultural history

Portal: Agriculture and Forestry

Web links

Statistical data on the agricultural structure:

• Germany: Chapter B: Agricultural situation (PDF) from the Federal Government's food and agricultural policy report
• Austria: Agriculture and forestry , especially agricultural structure, areas, yields , statistics; Green report , online, Statistics Austria.
• Switzerland: Agriculture and forestry , especially structures . Federal Office for statistics

Agricultural Policy:

• Federal-State Working Group on Rural Development (Germany)
• Joint federal-state task "Improvement of the agricultural structure and coastal protection (GAK)" (Germany)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Regulation (EEC) No. 571/88 of the Council of 29 February 1988 on the implementation of Community surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings between 1988 and 1997 . In: Official Journal. No. L 056 of 02/03/1988 pp. 1-14. Regulation (EC) No. 1166/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of November 19, 2008 on farm structure surveys and the survey on agricultural production methods as well as repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No. 571/88 . In: Official Journal. No. L 321 of 01/12/2008 pp. 14–34 (both online, EUR-LEX )
   
2. ↑ Federal Agency for Agricultural Economics (ed.): Green Report 2010 . 2010, 3. Agricultural structures and employment 3.2 Agricultural structure in the EU ; Tables 3.2.1 and 3.2.2, p. 78–81 ( Lebensministerium.at [PDF; accessed on July 9, 2011]).
3. ↑ Federal Law on Federal Statistics (Federal Statistics Law 2000) . StF: BGBl. I No. 163/1999 as amended (online, ris.bka )
4. ↑ Federal Law Gazette II No. 122/2010 : Ordinance on Statistics on the Structure of Agricultural Holdings and Agricultural Production Methods in 2010
5. ↑ Agricultural structure survey 2010 ( Memento from June 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), data on the questionnaire, Statistics Austria
6. ↑ Federal Agency for Agricultural Economics (ed.): Green Report 2010 . 2010, especially 3. Agricultural structures and employment , p. 64–82 ( Lebensministerium.at [PDF; accessed on July 9, 2011]).
7. ↑ The […] surveys cover:
   a) agricultural holdings with an agricultural area of ​​1 ha or more,
   b) agricultural holdings with an agricultural area of ​​less than 1 ha, if these holdings produce a certain proportion for sale or when their unit of production exceeds certain physical thresholds.
   Article 3 coverage (1) of Regulation (EC) No. 1166/2008
8. ↑ Green Report 2010 . 2010, p. 66 , col. 1 . There is general uncertainty about the total area of ​​the forest in Austria, since there are several recording bodies with different criteria (in particular Statistics Austria, Austrian Forest Inventory )
   
9. ↑ Green Report 2010 . 2010, table distribution of organic farms by political district 2009 , p. 72 .
10. ↑ ^{a b} Numbers on school attendance: statistik.at> Statistics> Education, Culture> Formal Education System> School attendance; For more detailed sources, see the article Landwirtschaftsschule # Austria
11. ↑ BOKU: Despite doubling the number of students, "not on the brakes". (APA). In: derStandard.at Education ›Uni› Uni-Politik. April 23, 2010, accessed July 9, 2011 . 
12. ↑ In Green Report 2010 . 2010, section 1, p. 65 , col. 2 .