The number of livestock farms in Europe with animals dropped by 40% over a 10-year period according to EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski.
He made the comments at the start of the Agricultural Outlook Conference taking place in Brussels today and tomorrow (December 8-9).
The conference is the flagship annual event for broad exchanges among stakeholders on market prospects in agriculture. This includes discussion of the political framework and uncertainties surrounding market developments in the next 10 years.
While the commissioner said that livestock farms had reduced by 40% between 2010 and 2020, he added that this is in stark contrast to a reduction of just 7% in farms without animals.
He stated: “In relative terms, pig and poultry farm numbers have seen the biggest drop, reducing by half in the last decade (to 712,000 farms in 2020).
“In farms specialising in animal production the animal numbers remained almost stable, with –2% reduction for ruminant farms and –1% for pigs and poultry farms,” the commissioner added.
“But we lose benefits of mixed farming, mainly the resilience due to variety of practices, or the closing of nutrient cycles at farm level, since manure is produced and used,” he explained.
“I think that we should reverse this trend and further support mixed farms since they deliver food security in a resilient way and unfortunately, are those that are disappearing every day.”
The comissioner mentioned that European farmers have demonstrated resilience and delivered food security.
“For this, I express my thanks. The challenges of the last years have reminded us that we should never take for granted our food, or those who produce it,” he stated.
“These developments, identified in the latest agriculture census, provide a wake-up call. I am convinced that the CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] provides member states with a strong set of tools to better support their farming communities and help them deliver sustainable food security for society,” he added.
“The census told us that farmers are getting older. The average age of a farmer in the EU is now 57 years, while the number of farm managers in the age group between 25 and 44 is decreasing at the fastest rate,” the commissioner said.
“While all farm types declined, mixed farms (combining arable/tillage crops with livestock) are declining the most. In 2010 this category was still the dominant farm type (with 3.1 million farms). In 2020, the number has dropped to 1.8 million, a decrease of 42%,” he said.
He admitted that there could not be generational renewal without “vibrant rural areas”.
The EU’s rural areas host 30% of EU population and occupy 83% of the territory and the commissioner said that the second pillar of the CAP forms a strong part of the long-term vision for rural areas.