Based on the results of the Census of Agricultural and Livestock Holdings 2020, the total number of holdings amounted to 34,046, of which 25,738 are purely agricultural, 5,392 are mixed and 2,916 are purely livestock holdings. The total agricultural area was counted at 1,462,879 decares (about 1,463 km²), of which 1,341,359 decares (about 1,341 km²) are used agricultural land.
Holders or Farm Managers
Of the total 34.046 holdings, 33,189 holdings (97.5%) are owned by natural persons (individual or co-managed), 56 by the public or a legal person under public law (NPA) and 801 operate as companies, cooperatives or in another form. The distribution of holdings in the different provinces is shown in Table 1 and refers to the place of residence of the holders and not to the place where the head office of the holding is located.
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Table 1 |
[TR] [TD]
Province
[/TD] [TD]Number of holdings
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD] [TD]Total
[/TD] [/TD] [TD]Natural Persons
[/TD] [TD]Legal Persons
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]TOTAL
[/TD] [TD]34 [/TD] [TD]
34.046
[/TD] [TD]
33.189
[/TD] [TD]857
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Nicosia
[/TD] [TD]10,805
[/TD] [TD]10.520
[/TD] [TD]285
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Famagusta
[/TD] [TD]2.051
[/TD] [TD]1.980
[/TD] [TD]71
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Larnaca
[/TD] [TD]5.718
[/TD] [TD]5.492
[/TD] [TD]226
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Limassol
[/TD] [TD]8.899
[/TD] [TD]8.724
[/TD] [TD]175
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Paphos
[/TD] [TD]6.573
[/TD] [TD]6.473
[/TD] [TD]100
[/TD] [/TR]
The average age of farm owners or managers is 63 years. In terms of age distribution, 2.4% of holdings were owned or managed by persons under 35, 20.6% by persons between 35 and 54, 59.6% by persons between 55 and 74 and 17.4% by persons aged 75 and over.
Land Tenure and Use
Of the total agricultural land in use, 57.4% is operated on a rental basis (769,973 decares), 41.6% is owned (557,460 decares), 0.7% is shared or otherwise (10.006 decimals) and 0.3% is shared (3,921 decimals).
Land under annual outdoor crops covers 75.9% of the total agricultural land in use, 22.0% is covered by perennial (permanent) outdoor crops, 1.7% by permanent pasture, 0.4% is land under greenhouses or high accessible shelters, and the remaining 0.1% is family vegetable gardens. Detailed data is presented in Table 2, below.
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Table 2 |
[TR] [TD]
Type C
[/TD] [TD]
Used Ceorgic Area (deciles)
[/TD] [/TD] [TD]Percentage Distribution (%)
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]TOTAL
[/TD] [TD]1 [/TD] [TD]
1.341.359
[/TD] [TD]100,0
[/TD] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Annual outdoor crops
[/TD] [TD]1.017,735
[/TD] [TD]75.9
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Perennial (permanent) crops outdoors
[/TD] [TD]294.515
[/TD] [TD]22,0
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Greenhouses or high accessible shelters
[/TD] [TD]4.897
[/TD] [TD]0.4
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Permanent pasture
[/TD] [TD]22.566
[/TD] [/TD] [TD]1,7
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Family vegetable gardens
[/TD] [TD]1.646
[/TD] [TD]0.1
[/TD] [/TR]
Of the annual crops in the open countryside, the largest area is occupied by plants harvested green, mainly for animal feed or grazing with 518.658 hectares, followed by various types of cereals for fruit production with 278.733 decares.
Of the perennial (permanent) crops, olive groves occupy the largest area with 120,686 decares, followed by vines with 65,997 decares and citrus trees with 34,230 decares.
The total irrigated area amounts to 381,250 decares or 28.4% of the total used agricultural area. The irrigated area amounts to 266,076 acres, or 19.8% of the total used agricultural area.
Organic farming methods that are either implemented and certified or in transition to certification are being implemented in 1.246 farms and cover 54,650 hectares, i.e. 4.1% of the agricultural area used.
Livestock
Cattle farms number 311, with 83,561 animals and pig farms 156, with 323,522 animals. The total number of sheep farms is 1,509, with a population of 327,882 head, while 1,587 farms manage 232,831 goats. As for poultry, there are 6,450 farms raising 4,730,039 poultry. The largest number of poultry (3 895 713 heads) is reared for meat production and accounts for 82.4% of the total. Laying hens constitute 16.1% of the total (759,732 heads) and other poultry 1.6% of the total (74,594 heads).
Employment
A total of 65 people were employed on agricultural holdings in 2020.533 holders and members of their households, of which 65.4% were men (42,890 persons) and 34.6% women (22,643 persons) and with a total of 2,798,060 working days. Permanent workers numbered 5,993 persons (85.9% men and 14.1% women), while seasonal workers amounted to 16,356 persons (41.0% men and 59.0% women).
The Census results show that the working days of the family labour force accounted for 62.5% of the total number of working days in agriculture and livestock farming. Permanent workers account for 35.3% of the total and seasonal workers for 2.2%.
Methodological Information
Purpose
The purpose of the Census is to collect information to examine trends in the structure of agricultural and livestock holdings in order to provide the EU with the necessary information for the design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and review of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and other related policies. The information relates to the structure and types of agricultural and livestock holdings and the characteristics of their owners, the segmentation of holdings, land tenure and use, areas under cultivation, number of animals per breed and age, animal housing, manure application and storage, and rural development measures. Information is also collected on the characteristics of the holders (age, gender, legal status, agricultural training, main occupation, etc.), the labour force of the holdings, including other speculative activities as well as production methods, environmental aspects, etc.
Coverage
The observation unit is the agricultural or livestock holding or mixed holding, defined as a single unit, both technically and economically, which has a single management and undertakes economic activities in agriculture.
The 2020 Census included every agricultural or livestock holding in the areas of the Republic of Cyprus that had:
- At least two (2) decares of usable agricultural area or at least one hundred square meters (100m²) of greenhouse or at least one (1) decare of vineyards or at least one hundred square meters (100m²) of mushrooms, regardless of the titles of ownership (form of occupation) and the place where it is located or,
- Own livestock, namely one (1) or more cows or a total of two (2) or more other cattle of any species and age or a total of five (5) or more "small" animals (sheep, goats, pigs), of any age and sex or fifty (50) or more poultry (chickens, hens, hens, turkeys, ducks, geese) or five (5) or more ostriches or twenty (20) or more bee hives or ten (10) or more colonies.
Data Collection
The Census is conducted every 10 years and sampled every 3 years. Data collection for the 2020 Census was carried out during the period September 2020 - May 2021 based on Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 and the relevant EU guidelines. Data collection started with face-to-face interviews and completion of paper questionnaires as planned, but due to the pandemic, the collection method was varied for the period November 2020 - February 2021 and was carried out through telephone interviews.
Reference period
The reference period for land characteristics refers to areas used from 1 September 2019 - 31 August 2020. The reference day for livestock variables is 31 December 2020. The reference period for variables relating to labour force is the 12-month period from 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020.
Definitions
Holder: The holder is the natural person, group of natural persons or legal person on whose behalf and in whose name the holding is operated and who has legal and financial responsibility for the holding. It is clarified that the concept of the holder of the holding should not be confused with that of the owner of the land or animals on the holding. The holder may be the owner of the holding or the tenant or the long-term tenant by inheritance or the manager of a third party's property.
Utilised agricultural area: Includes the agricultural area cultivated or operated by the holding, regardless of the form of occupation (owned, rented, etc.).) and covered by annual crops, permanent crops, greenhouses, family vegetable gardens, permanent meadows and pastures and fallow land up to 5 years old. Also included are barren pastures used for grazing the animals of the holding during the reference period.
Annual crops: Included are the areas covered by crops subject to the crop rotation system (crop rotation). These are those crops whose life cycle does not exceed one year. They consist of cereals for fruit production, pulses for dry fruit, plants with roots or tubers, industrial plants, fresh vegetables, melons and strawberries, flowers and ornamental plants, plants harvested green, seed orchards and seedlings, fallow and other annual crops.
Perennial (permanent) crops: These are woody plants, i.e. trees or shrubs, which do not belong to the rotation cycle, occupy the soil for a long period of time and produce products for many years. The products of the various species of trees or shrubs, where they are planted in regular trees or scattered, are usually intended for human consumption. They consist of olive groves, apple trees, stone fruit trees, fruit crops of subtropical and tropical climates, nut trees, flesh trees, carob trees, citrus trees, vines, nurseries and other permanent crops.
Greenhouses or high accessible shelters: Areas of crops which for the whole or most of their growing season are in greenhouses or under high covers (mobile or not).
Permanent pasture: Areas of land used permanently (for several consecutive years, normally 5 or more) to grow grasses and herbaceous forage plants for grazing or energy purposes either sown or natural vegetation and not included in crop rotation.
Family vegetable gardens: These are small areas of land that are usually located close to the house of the holder of the holding, separate from the rest of the holding and whose production is intended for consumption by the persons living on the holding and not for sale.
Irrigated area: This is the utilised agricultural area that was capable of being irrigated during the reference period using the equipment and the amount of water normally available on the holding, whether irrigated or not. Excludes areas under greenhouses or under high accessible shelters and family vegetable gardens.
Irrigated area: This is the area actually irrigated at least once during the reference period. Excludes areas in greenhouses or under high accessible shelters and family vegetable gardens.
Labour force: It is the total number of physical persons who during a growing season were engaged in any way in the tasks (managerial, technical or manual work) of the holding required both for each branch of production and for its general needs or for the management of production from the marketing point of view.
Permanent workers: Persons who worked on the holding regularly, all weeks during the reference 12-month period, irrespective of the length of the working week, and received remuneration (wages, profits or payments in kind) from the holding. Permanent workers are also persons who worked permanently for part of this 12-month period and were unable to work for the whole period, either because the crops require a few months of employment, or because of illness, military service, accident or death, or because there was a break in employment on the holding in the middle of the 12-month period, or because of a permanent cessation of work on the holding due to disasters, e.g. floods, fire, etc.
Seasonal workers: Persons who did not work on the agricultural holding regularly, all weeks during the 12 reference months, but only for a short period of time, or for short periods of time because they were hired only for a specific job, e.g.For more information:
For more information:
Statistical Service Portal, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Predefined Tables (Excel), Methodological Information
Contact:
Lucia Alexandrou: Tel. Postal: lalexandrou@cystat.mof.gov.cy
(NΓ/ΣΧ)
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