Agriculture in the United Kingdom
Agriculture in the United Kingdom uses 69% of the country's land area, employs 1.5% of its workforce (476,000 people) and contributes 0.62% of its gross value added (£9.9 billion). The UK produces less than 60% of the food it eats. Although agricultural activity occurs in most rural locations, it is concentrated in East Anglia (crops) and the South West (livestock). Of the 212,000 farm holdings, there is a wide variation in size from under 20 to over 100 hectares.
Despite skilled farmers, high technology, fertile soil and subsidies, farm earnings are relatively low, mainly due to low prices at the farm gate. Low earnings, high land prices and a shortage of let farmland discourage young people from joining the industry. The average age of the British farm holder is now 59.
Recently there have been moves towards organic farming in an attempt to sustain profits, and many farmers supplement their income by diversifying activities away from pure agriculture. Biofuels present new opportunities for farmers against a background of rising fears about fossil fuel prices, energy security, and climate change. There is increasing awareness that farmers have an important role to play as custodians of the British countryside and wildlife.
The total area of agricultural holdings is about 171,000 km2 (43 million acres), or 183,000 km2 including rough grazing land, of which about a third, 64,000 km2 (15.3 million acres) are arable and most of the rest is given over to grassland. During the growing season about half the arable area is devoted to cereal crops, and of the cereal crop area, more than 65% is wheat. There are about 31 million sheep, 10 million cattle, 9.6 million poultry and 4.5 million pigs. These are arranged on about 212,000 holdings, whose average cultivable area is around 54 hectares (130 acres). About 70% of farms are owner-occupied or mostly so (perhaps with individual barns or fields let out), and the remainder are rented to tenant farmers. Farmers represent an ageing population, partly due to low earnings and barriers to entry, and it is increasingly hard to recruit young people into farming. The average farm holder is 59 years old.
British farming is intensive and highly mechanised, but the country is so heavily populated that it cannot supply its own food needs. The UK produces only 59% of the food it consumes. In 2010, it exported £14 billion worth of food, feed and drink, and imported £32.5 billion. The vast majority of imports and exports are with other Western European countries.
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