And yet the average surface area of farms has only increased over the same period. The average area of a plot was 53.2 hectares at the beginning of the century, whether it is 77 hectares now. The data suggests that the farms that have disappeared have either been bought up or fused with others. The agricultural area in use as increased ever since the year 2000.
Most land is used to raise livestock and poultry, the main farming activities over the past two decades. In fact, in 2019, pastureland accounted for 43.1% of Luxembourg’s agricultural land. By way of comparison: fodder crops (21.6%) and cereals (20.8%) together did not take up as much space in the same year.
And despite the surface area of pastureland in Luxembourg, the latest Statec report shows that the cattle population has been in decline since 2000. A decline which, far from being significant, nevertheless indicates something about meat consumption in Luxembourg.
Although the cattle and sheep population has gone down for several years, the number of chickens and hens has risen impressively since 2000. It has gone from 71,785 hens and chickens in 2000 to 132,138 in 2019. This is almost twice as much poultry as at the beginning of the century.
If we analyse the evolution of the agricultural labour force, we can see that the family labour force has been decreasing since the year 2000, while the share of salaried workers is increasing in this sector. This suggests that family businesses have lost ground to more “modern” farms.
