3 New Trends and Drivers for Agricultural Land Use in Germany
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3.3.3 Land Use Structure and Concentration
There has been a continuous structural change in German agriculture resulting in a
declining number of farms and an increasing average farm size. In 2001 the average
farm size has been 28 ha in West Germany and 182 ha in East Germany (BMVEL
2002), increasing to 46 and 223 ha, respectively, in 2019 (Statistisches Bundesamt
2019). There is a new political debate in Germany restricting the access to land
to avoid land concentration and non-farm land investments. In Lower Saxony the
“Niedersächsisches Agrarstruktursicherungsgesetz” (Landtag Niedersachsen 2017)
is to conserve structures and family-based farming and to reduce land price increases.
This is an interesting new field of land use policy, however, we will not further follow
up the topic since the relevance to land use seems to be limited. It may be that bigger
farms and, thus, the growth of farms have an impact on the size of field plots and
crop rotation, but talking about biodiversity the problem is not “big farms”, but “big
plots” and intensive agriculture (BfN 2015). It is widely argued that environmental
problems of farming can hardly be linked to the size of a farm and, thus, the farm
structure, but to the kind of farming on any farm.
Looking at agricultural land use in Germany specifically, there have been remarkable structural changes in recent years. Permanent grassland is a specific point in
case. There has been a continuous decline of permanent grassland since 2000 until
2013, but since then the trend is stopped and permanent grassland is increasing. This
overall picture is dominated by the situation in West Germany with a share of permanent grassland of 76% in 2016 whereas the area of permanent grassland has stayed
roughly the same in East Germany from 2004 onwards. The West German picture is
reflected by Bavaria and Lower Saxony, which are the German Bundesländer with
the largest area of permanent grassland. In Bavaria the downward trend, with 1.15
million hectares in 2002, seems to be stopped in recent years, with 1.06 million
hectares in 2016. In Lower Saxony, the figures are 0.78 million hectares in 2002 and
0.69 million hectares in 2016, respectively (Statistisches Bundesamt, various years).
Some remarkable land use changes can also be stated for arable land in Germany
since 2000. Figure 3.7 shows land use changes between 2004 and 2019 for the main
crops farmed in Germany. With a share of 55% in 2019 cereals cover most of the
arable land in Germany. In recent years there has been a downward trend in cereal
land use contrasted by a stable trend for wheat. A downward trend can also be
noted for root crops (potatoes and sugar beets) with an increase to 680,000 ha in
2019 whereas there has been a remarkable extension of the silage maize area since
2010. Additionally, some trends for minor crops are worth mentioning. The total area
farmed with pulses decreased to 92,000 ha in 2014 but doubled within two years with
196,000 ha in 2019. Set-aside land has been coming down from 939,000 ha in 2003
to 147,000 ha in 2019.
49
3.3.3 Land Use Structure and Concentration
There has been a continuous structural change in German agriculture resulting in a
declining number of farms and an increasing average farm size. In 2001 the average
farm size has been 28 ha in West Germany and 182 ha in East Germany (BMVEL
2002), increasing to 46 and 223 ha, respectively, in 2019 (Statistisches Bundesamt
2019). There is a new political debate in Germany restricting the access to land
to avoid land concentration and non-farm land investments. In Lower Saxony the
“Niedersächsisches Agrarstruktursicherungsgesetz” (Landtag Niedersachsen 2017)
is to conserve structures and family-based farming and to reduce land price increases.
This is an interesting new field of land use policy, however, we will not further follow
up the topic since the relevance to land use seems to be limited. It may be that bigger
farms and, thus, the growth of farms have an impact on the size of field plots and
crop rotation, but talking about biodiversity the problem is not “big farms”, but “big
plots” and intensive agriculture (BfN 2015). It is widely argued that environmental
problems of farming can hardly be linked to the size of a farm and, thus, the farm
structure, but to the kind of farming on any farm.
Looking at agricultural land use in Germany specifically, there have been remarkable structural changes in recent years. Permanent grassland is a specific point in
case. There has been a continuous decline of permanent grassland since 2000 until
2013, but since then the trend is stopped and permanent grassland is increasing. This
overall picture is dominated by the situation in West Germany with a share of permanent grassland of 76% in 2016 whereas the area of permanent grassland has stayed
roughly the same in East Germany from 2004 onwards. The West German picture is
reflected by Bavaria and Lower Saxony, which are the German Bundesländer with
the largest area of permanent grassland. In Bavaria the downward trend, with 1.15
million hectares in 2002, seems to be stopped in recent years, with 1.06 million
hectares in 2016. In Lower Saxony, the figures are 0.78 million hectares in 2002 and
0.69 million hectares in 2016, respectively (Statistisches Bundesamt, various years).
Some remarkable land use changes can also be stated for arable land in Germany
since 2000. Figure 3.7 shows land use changes between 2004 and 2019 for the main
crops farmed in Germany. With a share of 55% in 2019 cereals cover most of the
arable land in Germany. In recent years there has been a downward trend in cereal
land use contrasted by a stable trend for wheat. A downward trend can also be
noted for root crops (potatoes and sugar beets) with an increase to 680,000 ha in
2019 whereas there has been a remarkable extension of the silage maize area since
2010. Additionally, some trends for minor crops are worth mentioning. The total area
farmed with pulses decreased to 92,000 ha in 2014 but doubled within two years with
196,000 ha in 2019. Set-aside land has been coming down from 939,000 ha in 2003
to 147,000 ha in 2019.