Malta Agriculture Survey Confirms Decline Of Poultry Industry
MALTA - A survey of agricultural holdings conducted by the National Statistics Office has revealed that almost all holdings are owned by individual farmers with a mere 1.6 per cent owned by partnerships and only 0.3 per cent owned by companies.The survey, which also deals with livestock, confirms the decline of the poultry industry since EU membership in 2004.
As expected, when compared to the total utilised agricultural area recorded in the Farm Structure Survey of 2003, there were no apparent changes in the holding size structures and the majority of agricultural holdings are relatively small.
A total of 5,520 agricultural holdings have less than 0.5 ha of utilised agricultural area, of which 190 holdings do not have any utilised agricultural area but are engaged in the rearing of livestock.
Although the majority of agricultural holdings have less than 0.5 ha of utilised agricultural areas, these holdings have a total of 1,331 ha (13.0 per cent) of the total utilised agricultural area. On the other hand, wheras only 2,980 agricultural holdings (26.9 per cent) have 1 ha or more of utilised areas, these holdings have a total of 7,169 ha (69.9 per cent) of the total utilised agricultural area.
Source: Business Today
2 June 2006
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