In 2013 the total number of farms showed a turndown of 9.2% with respect to the Agricultural Census held in 2010.
The decrease in terms of agricultural areas is lower if compared to the loss in terms of number of holdings (utilized agricultural area -3.3%, total area of -2.4% with respect to 2010). Thus the total mean size per farm increases from 7.9 to 8.4 hectares.
The most significant reductions in agricultural utilized area occur in the Centre (-6.3%) and North-West geographical areas (-5.7%).
The most remarkable decreases recorded for crops are: garden vegetables (-15.2%); hard wheat (-12.8%); fruit-bearing trees (-8.4%).
Within the livestock sector, a negative trend is observed for pigs (-7.8%) and cattle (-4.5%) while sheep /goats and poultry remain basically steady (+0.5%,-1.5% respectively).
The observed fall in the number of farms is reflected in the strong decrease of the family labor force units (-13.0% with respect to 2010), thus resulting into a similar downturn of the total agricultural labor force units (-8.1%).
Thanks to the significant rise of units of the other labour force (+14.3%), the total working days keep roughly constant (+0.8% from 2010).
For more information
Structural agricultural surveys
Elena Catanese
catanese@istat.it
ph. +39 06 4673 4474
Cecilia Manzi
manzi@istat.it
ph. +39 06 4673 4532