This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Economic report on Scottish agriculture
25/06/2002
The latest edition of the Economic Report on Scottish
Agriculture was published today.
The report - which is published annually and gives
figures from the June and December 2001 Agricultural
Censuses, results of the Aggregated Agricultural Account
and Farm Accounts Survey - gathers together information
already published in other documents.
Data from the June census in this publication include
farms classified as both main and minor holdings. The
figures for the December survey still relate to main
holdings only but are available in regional breakdown
format for the first time.
The main census statistics show the following: -
- The total area of combine harvested crops fell by
over 2 per cent in 2001 to 480,500 hectares. The area
of cereals decreased by nearly 10,000 hectares to
440,100 hectares;
- As a result of an increase in the area put to
obligatory set-aside, the area of set-aside rose for
the third year in a row, by nearly 16 per cent to over
90,000 hectares;
- The Scottish cattle population fell by just over 6
per cent to 1.905 million;
- The number of sheep decreased in 2001, falling by
nearly 12 per cent to 8.1 million;
- The pig-breeding herd increased for the first time
in three years, rising by over 6 per cent to 61,300.
The total pig herd also increased in 2001, by nearly 7
per cent, to 596,500.
The main results of the Aggregate Agricultural Account
show:-
- A forecast increase in Total Income From Farming
(TIFF) of around 11 per cent (£28 million) from
2000.
- The value of gross output (including subsidies
directly related to products) is forecast to have
fallen by 2 per cent since 2000. The main fall being in
livestock (11 per cent), where FMD led to large falls
in cattle and sheep output. The magnitude of the fall,
however, has been exaggerated somewhat by the change
over from Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowances (HLCA)
to the Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme (LFASS). Now
that these particular subsidies are decoupled from
production, they are no longer included in the cattle
and sheep output figures. In contrast the value of
potato and milk output increased by 25 per cent and 21
per cent respectively.
- Gross input value is forecast to decrease slightly
to £1,013 million in 2001.
- The interest bill is forecast to decrease by about
£9 million (9 per cent) from 2000 due largely to
decreases in bank interest rates.
The results from the Farm Accounts Survey show:-
- Averaged across all farm types, net farm income
slightly more than doubled between 1999/00 and 2000/01,
to an average of £6,000 per farm. (Results are based on
450 farms for the 1999 and 2000 crop years).