Large farms in Europe - Issue number 18/2011


Less than 1 % of European farms occupy 20 % of the Utilised Agricultural Area

The Utilized Agricultural Area (UAA) refers to the land used for farming; it includes arable land, permanent grassland, permanent crops and also kitchen gardens. The distribution of the UAA between large and small farms varies among the countries but in most countries a small number of farms occupy a high percentage of the agricultural area. In this publication the Farm Structure Survey (FSS) data from 2007 is used to analyse the significance of the larger farms (classified in terms of area) in the structure of the agricultural holdings within the various Member States, Norway and Switzerland.