Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture 2015

2.3 Land use by sub-region (Table C4)

Table C4 presents land use by the four regions and 14 sub-regions (as presented in Map 1). Chart 2.1 highlights that Highland understandably had the largest share of Scotland’s agricultural land, it being the largest area, with 2.10 million hectares (34 per cent), followed by Grampian (11 per cent) and Tayside (ten per cent). Highland also had by far the largest share of grass and rough grazing, and of farmed woodland (both accounting for around 36 per cent of Scotland’s total).

Chart 2.1: Distribution of total agricultural area and other land-types by sub-region, June 2014

However, taking into account the size of these sub-regions, chart 2.2 shows that the islands have the largest proportion of their land in agricultural use, with nearly 100 per cent on Shetland and Eileanan an Iar, and over 90 per cent on Orkney. The lowest percentage was in the Clyde Valley, where 64 per cent was in agricultural use.

Chart 2.2: Proportion of area in agricultural use, and by type, June 2014

The two charts also show that Grampian and Tayside had the largest share of crop and fallow land in Scotland (31 per cent and 22 per cent of Scotland’s total respectively), with Fife and Lothian having the largest proportions of their land as crop or fallow (40 per cent and 28 per cent respectively). By contrast very small areas of land were used for crops and fallow on Shetland, Eileanan an Iar and in Argyll and Bute. See section 4.1 for more detailed breakdown of these categories.