Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture, 2016

3.11 Off-farm income (Table B10)

Farm owners often supplement their income from agricultural activities with income from other sources. Off-farm income refers to these additional sources of income for farmers and their spouses.

Overall, in 2014-15, 58 per cent of off‑farm income came from employment or self-employment, with the remaining 42 per cent coming from investments and pensions.

Chart 3.16 shows the percentage of total income (agricultural income and off-farm income combined) that comes from agricultural activities (including diversified activities and grants and subsidies) and from off-farm income sources (such as employment and investments).

In 2010-11 and 2011-12 the percentage of total income per FTE ( FBI/ FTE plus off-farm income/ FTE) provided by agricultural activities was relatively unchanged at around 84 per cent. In 2012-13 and 2013-14 this fell to 76 per cent, before falling again in 2014-15 to 68 per cent. Accounting for inflation, FBI/ FTE has fallen by 48 per cent since 2009-10, while OFI/ FTE has increased by three per cent over the same period.

Chart 3.16: Contribution of farming and off-farm income to overall income, 2009-10 to 2014-15