Agriculture in Europe goes back to classical times. The development first of the Greek city-states, then of the Roman Empire, created urban centers that required substantial amounts of food to be imported from as far away as Egypt. In the year 2000 European agriculture was dominated by two major groups: the European Union (EU), with fifteen member states, and those European states outside the EU. The EU, which began with the Common Market created by the Treaty of Rome, signed in 1957, initially comprised France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. By the year 2000 it had expanded to include Great Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, and Austria.
Land and Workers
Only 11 percent of the land in the world (slightly more than 5 million square miles) is suitable for agriculture. Among the continents, Europe has the highest percentage of land suitable for farming: 36 percent. (In North America, the comparable figure is 22 percent.) Overall, 80 percent of the land in Europe is usable in some way, either as agricultural land or as forestland.
Smaller farms are more extensive in the southern countries of the EU than in the northern countries. Some 60 percent of all farms in the EU are less than 5 hectares (12.5 acres) in size. Many of these small farms are either part-time or subsistence farms. Farms that are more than 50 hectares in size (125 acres, a small farm by U.S. standards) constitute only 6 percent of all farms but produce most of the crops.
The percentage of the labor force employed in agriculture is small where the farms are large in Great Britain, it is a mere 2 percent. In the rest of the EU, except for some of the more recent members, such as Greece, Spain, and Portugal, the percentages are all in the single digits. Where the farms are small, or in non-EU countries, without the EU's agricultural policy to push production up with high prices, the percentage of the labor force employed in agriculture is much higher. In Poland, 27 percent of the labor force is employed in agriculture, in Romania, 21 percent, and in the Ukraine, 19 percent.
Crops
Europe produces about 19 percent of the world's grains eaten by humans or livestock and almost 24 percent of the world's coarse grains (barley, rye, oats). Most of all these grains are grown in Russia.
Continue of the article: Crops
Agricultural Revolution
Beginning in the 1970's, Europe underwent what has been called a new agricultural "revolution." Ownerships were consolidated, especially in Britain but also in France and Germany.
Continue of the article: Agricultural Revolution
Irrigation and Drainage
Despite the generally favorable climate, Europe has 10 percent of the world's irrigated acreage. Most of that is in the Russian Federation, but Italy, Spain, and Romania also have significant amounts.
Continue of the article: Irrigation and Drainage
See also: EUROPEAN FLORA
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