Further fall in organic land

The percentage of agricultural land used for organic farming has fallen by four per cent to 122,000 hectares, or 2.2% of agricultural land, according to new figures published today by the Chief Statistician of the Scottish Government.

This is the eighth consecutive fall in the area of organic land. The fall in area was seen in grassland & rough grazing (down 4%), and potatoes and veg (down 1%), with a small increase in cereals (up 1%). Pasture makes up 93% of organic land.

There was an increase in the number of organic cattle (up 16% to 29,000), but there were falls in the number of sheep (down 13% to 115,000), pigs (down 75% to 1,750), and poultry (down 8% to 241,000). There was also an increase in the number of licensed producers and processors, up from 539 in 2015 to 560 in 2016, of which 355 were producers.

There was also a fall in the area of organic farmland in the UK as a whole, with 2.9% of agricultural land now organic. In Europe, however, organic production is increasing, with the latest available data, for 2015, showing over 6% of agricultural land used for organic farming.

The documents released today were produced by independent statistical staff, free from any political interference, in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

 The full publication is available.

These statistics are used by government and stakeholders to moonitor and assess the economic well-being of the agricultural sector and for policy evaluation. Further inforation on agriculture and fisheries statistics.

Information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland.