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Agriculture in the United Kingdom uses 71% of the country's land area, employs 1.5% of its workforce (476,000 people) and contributes 0.62% of its gross value added (£9.9 billion). The UK produces less than 60% of the food it eats. Although agricultural activity occurs in most rural locations, it is concentrated in East Anglia (crops) and the South West (livestock). Of the 212,000 farm holdings, there is a large variation in size from under 20 to over 100 hectares.〔 Despite skilled farmers, high technology, fertile soil and subsidies, which primarily come from the European Union (EU), farm earnings are relatively low, mainly due to low prices at the farm gate. Low earnings, high land prices and a shortage of let farmland discourage young people from joining the profession. The average age of the British farm holder is now 59.〔〔〔 Recently there have been moves towards organic farming in an attempt to sustain profits, and many farmers supplement their income by diversifying activities away from pure agriculture. Biofuels present new opportunities for farmers against a background of rising fears about fossil fuel prices, energy security, and climate change. There is increasing awareness that farmers have an important role to play as custodians of the British countryside and wildlife. ==Overview== The total area of agricultural holdings is about 171,000 km2 (43 million acres), or 183,000 km2 including rough grazing land, of which about a third, 64,000 km2 (15.3 million acres) are arable and most of the rest is given over to grassland. During the growing season about half the arable area is devoted to cereal crops, and of the cereal crop area, more than 65% is wheat. There are about 31 million sheep, 10 million cattle, 9.6 million poultry and 4.5 million pigs. These are arranged on almost 235,000 holdings, whose average cultivable area is around . About 70% of farms are owner-occupied or mostly so (perhaps with individual barns or fields let out), and the remainder are rented to tenant farmers. Farmers represent an ageing population, partly due to low earnings and barriers to entry, and it is increasingly hard to recruit young people into farming. The average farm holder is 59 years old.〔〔〔〔 British farming is intensive and highly mechanised, but the country is so heavily populated that it cannot supply its own food needs. The UK produces only 59% of the food it consumes. In 2010, it exported £14 billion worth of food, feed and drink, and imported £32.5 billion. The vast majority of imports and exports are with other Western European countries.〔〔 Farming is subsidised, with subsidies to farmers totalling £3.19 billion (after deduction of levies) paid in 2010. These subsidies are mostly channelled through the EU Common Agricultural Policy from member states' contributions. UK farmers receive the fifth largest agricultural subsidy in the EU, with 7% of the subsidy, after France (17%), Spain (13%), Germany (12%), and Italy (10%). There is downward pressure on the subsidies and on 19 November 2010, the EU announced a reform starting in 2013. At the Agriculture in the United Kingdom Seminar 2010, it was thought that subsidies would decrease over time, and that the number of farms and the number of farmers would also continue to decline, while the derivatives and futures markets will become more important to farming. Output volume rose by 1.9% in 2010 compared to 2009, productivity increased by 1.6%, and direct subsidies fell by 12%. Between 1979 and 2010, productivity grew by 49%, output volumes by 25% and input volumes fell by 16%.〔〔〔〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Agriculture in the United Kingdom」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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