According to a 2007 census survey, there were just over 75,000 farming establishments in Slovenia engaged in agriculture, a 2.4% decrease from two years prior. Intensive structural changes have slowed the decrease in farms by preventing large-scale farmland abandonment, keeping the average farm size at 6.5 hectares. Stock farming is the most important agricultural sector in Slovenia, with ruminants like sheep and goats increasingly bred, though the average number of livestock units per farm is decreasing.
According to a 2007 census survey, there were just over 75,000 farming establishments in Slovenia engaged in agriculture, a 2.4% decrease from two years prior. Intensive structural changes have slowed the decrease in farms by preventing large-scale farmland abandonment, keeping the average farm size at 6.5 hectares. Stock farming is the most important agricultural sector in Slovenia, with ruminants like sheep and goats increasingly bred, though the average number of livestock units per farm is decreasing.
According to a 2007 census survey, there were just over 75,000 farming establishments in Slovenia engaged in agriculture, a 2.4% decrease from two years prior. Intensive structural changes have slowed the decrease in farms by preventing large-scale farmland abandonment, keeping the average farm size at 6.5 hectares. Stock farming is the most important agricultural sector in Slovenia, with ruminants like sheep and goats increasingly bred, though the average number of livestock units per farm is decreasing.
According to a 2007 census survey, there were just over 75,000 farming establishments in Slovenia engaged in agriculture, a 2.4% decrease from two years prior. Intensive structural changes have slowed the decrease in farms by preventing large-scale farmland abandonment, keeping the average farm size at 6.5 hectares. Stock farming is the most important agricultural sector in Slovenia, with ruminants like sheep and goats increasingly bred, though the average number of livestock units per farm is decreasing.
relative to the UAA surface area) According to provisional data from the 2007 sample census survey, just above 75,000 farming establishments in Slovenia are engaged in agriculture, which is 2.4% less than two years before. Production types of farming establishments 23.29 36.10 25.62 11.43 2.21 0.94 0.27 0.13 0 - < 2 2 - < 5 5 - < 10 10 - < 20 20 - < 30 30 - < 50 50 - < 100 >= 100 0.S 21.S s1cck iAxmiNc mixio riAN1 rxco. ANo s1cck iAxmiNc AxAaii iAxmiNc ucx1icui1uxi rixmANiN1 cxcrs cxAziNc iivis1cck mixio riAN1 rxcouc1icN rics ANo rcui1xY 15.5 4.2 0.S 9.1 2S.6 19.2 9 Agriculture Intensive structural changes have slowed down the decrease in the number of farms, which characterised the second half of the 1990s. This period did not record any substantial abandonment of agricultural land and so the average size of farms remained more or less unchanged and totals 6.5 hectares of utilised agricultural area (UAA). At the same time, the number of farms with more than 20 hectares of agricultural land has increased. Utilized agricultural area (UAA) regarding its purpose Number of livestock iiiios ANo cAxoiNs miAocws ANo cxAssiANo rixmANiN1 riAN1A1icNs 0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 600,000
1993 1996 1999 2002 2005 2006
xAaai1s ucxsis suiir ANo ccA1s rics 0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 600,000 700,000 S00,000 900,000 1,000,000 1997 2000 2003 2005 2006 10 11 Slovenia with 490,939 hectares of utilised agricultural area contributes about 0.30% to the total surface area of the agricultural land of the EU-25 members (excluding Romania and Bulgaria). Similarly, agricultures importance relative to other primary economic branches is not insignificant and the same is true of its relationship with the secondary and tertiary sectors. A specific problem faced by Slovenian agriculture is the age structure of farmers on family farms. The share of those younger than 45 years is only 17.7%, a slightly higher share of farmers is seen in the 45 to 55 years age group (24.5%), whereas most farmers are above 55 years old (58.5%). Slovenia is fully aware of this problem, which is also the reason for the slower transfer of knowledge to farms, therefore a number of measures have been taken in the last few years to encourage ageing farmers to retire and transfer their farms to their descendants, and to encourage the young to decide to take over. It is also a fact that on farms larger than 10 hectares the ratio between the age groups is more favourable as 59% of farmers are younger than 55. This indicates the great importance of stock farming in Slovenia. Primarily, ruminants are being bred and, of these, the breeding of sheep and goats is very much on the increase although, on average, the number of livestock units (LU) per farm is decreasing (6.3 LU). The share of agriculture in the gross domestic product (GDP) is slightly lower than the European average and totals just under 2%. Despite the small share in GDP, agricultures significance is greater than it seems at first sight. The multipurpose roles of agriculture in the Slovenian rural area are no longer just words on paper; instead, it has become publicly recognised and with its specific results it is making progress. Meadows and pastures represent as much as 60% of agricultural land, while more than 20% of fields are intended for the production of feed (maize, root crops, green feed). Stock farming production Stock farming is also the most important agricultural branch in terms of value. In Slovenia up to 449,000 hectares are defined as areas with limiting factors. miik (mii ci ii1xis) iccs (mic) ricmiA1 (000 1cNs) rcui1xYmiA1 (000 1cN) acviNimiA1 (000 1cNs) suiirmiA1ccA1miA1 (000 1cN) 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 1997 2000 2003 2005 2006 12 13 In the Slovenia-EU accession negotiations, a milk quota of 560,424 tonnes (467,063 tonnes of which was to be sold to dairies and the rest was for direct sale) was first allotted to Slovenia. Permanent and temporary conversions from the supply quota to a direct sale quota and an increase envisaged in 2006 followed. Thus, the available national quota for 2006/2007 was 576,638 tonnes, 96% of which went to supply dairies. In 2006, 623.5 million litres of milk were produced. In the production of meat in 2006, 41,211 tonnes of carcass weight of beef meat was produced at home, 63,100 tonnes of carcass weight of pig meat and 50,100 tonnes of poultry meat. These are hilly and mountainous areas with Karst features or other factors that limit possibilities of farming. Only 10% of Slovenian municipalities have no areas with limiting factors within their boundaries. In these areas, farms are entitled to subsidiaries, which totalled EUR 43.8 million or 50.5% of the budget expenditures of the rural development policy in 2006. The total value of agricultural output is 959 million EUR, to which stock farming contributes 511 million EUR. Otherwise, Slovenias contribution to the total value of agricultural output of the EU-25 is about 0.31%, which is nearly the same as its share of its utilised agricultural area.