76% of agricultural holdings are less than a hectare

With three quarters of utilised agricultural area less than a hectare, one wonders how Maltese farmers manage to produce an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetable.

Only 1,264 hectares of the 11,689 hectares of Maltese and Gozitan soil are used for plantation – of which 54% is taken up by vineyard cultivation.

According to the National Statistics Office, the “largest” agricultural holdings come at a minimum of five hectares – and only 2.4% of the utilised agricultural area are this big.

75.6% of the agricultural holdings are small, where 9,427 each have an agricultural area of less than a hectare. Medium-sized agricultural holdings made up 22% of the total; such holdings comprise between one and five hectares.

Arable land accounted for 76.7% of the total utilised agricultural area (UAA), while permanent crops and kitchen gardens made up the remaining 10.8 and 12.5% respectively.

The cultivation of fodder plants 59% was predominant in the tenure of arable land.

1,264 hectares of UAA comprised plantations, of which 54% was dedicated to vineyard cultivation. Fruit and berry plantations, mainly peaches, amounted to 30.5% of total permanent crops, while citrus, olive and nurseries accounted for 7.1, 8.2 and 0.2% respectively.

Agricultural holdings in Malta were predominantly run by sole holders (98.6 %). Group holdings and companies accounted for 1.1 and 0.3 % of all holdings respectively. Sole holders also acted as farm managers in 96.9 % of all sole-holder agricultural holdings.

The agricultural labour force was made up of 19,066 persons, or 5,044 annual work units.

Part-time employment amounted to 17,693 persons (92.8%), while 1,372 persons (7.2%) worked on a full-time basis. Males (79.3%) were predominant in the agricultural labour force.

Of all sole-holder managers, 45.7% reported that they practised a major gainful activity outside of agriculture, while 52.4% stated that they had no other gainful activity.

The majority of the latter were either totally engaged in agriculture or were pensioners. During the reference period, 84.6% of all sole-holder managers were 45 years of age or older, while the majority of sole-holder managers (70.2%) worked less than 25% of one annual work unit

As at 1 September 2013, the total cattle population amounted to 14,949 heads, of which 6,239, or 41.7%, were dairy cows. The pig population amounted to 51,641 heads, while sheep and goat stocks numbered 9,916 and 4,032 heads respectively. A total 0.9 million poultry heads were registered, of which 67.2 and 32.4 % were broilers and laying hens respectively.