The third biennial survey on the structure of agricultural holdings was carried out in the months of September and October 2007, covering the agricultural year from 1 September 2006 to 31 August 2007.

Agricultural holdings in Malta are predominantly run by sole-holders (98.0 per cent). Group holdings and companies amounted to 1.7 and 0.3 per cent of all agricultural holdings respectively. The sole holder was also the farm manager in 95.4 per cent of all sole-holder holdings.

Utilised agricultural area (UAA)

In the structure survey of 2007, the total utilised agricultural area amounted to 10,326 hectares. Agricultural holdings in Malta and Gozo are quite small, with nearly 8,000 agricultural holdings (72.5 per cent) having a utilised agricultural area of less than 1.0 hectare each.

Medium-sized agricultural holdings made up 24.9 per cent of the total; such holdings comprise between one and five hectares, while 2.6 per cent of all agricultural holdings are considered large, having five hectares of utilised agricultural area or more.

Regarding the distribution of the utilised agricultural area, arable land accounted for 77.6 per cent of the total, while permanent crops and kitchen gardens respectively made up the remaining 12.8 and 9.6 per cent. The cultivation of forage crops (58.5 per cent) dominates the use of arable land. While fresh vegetable and potato cultivation accounted for 23.9 and 8.9 per cent respectively, 8.4 per cent of the arable land was left fallow. Only 0.3 per cent of arable land was dedicated to the production of flowers and seeds.

A total of 1,322 hectares of utilised agricultural area was planted with permanent crops, of which 56.9 per cent was dedicated to vineyards. Fruit and berry plantations, mainly peaches, made up 28.9 per cent of the total permanent crops, while citrus and olive plantations accounted for 6.9 and 7.4 per cent respectively.

Livestock

The farm structure survey also took into consideration the number of livestock on the holding as at 31 August 2007. The total cattle population resulting from the survey amounted to 18,906 heads with 8,082 or 42.8 per cent being dairy cows. The survey revealed that the pig population on agricultural holdings amounted to 79,186 heads, while sheep and goat stocks amounted to 8,788 and 5,738 heads respectively. A total of 1.2 million poultry heads was registered, with 53.9 per cent being broilers destined for meat production. The remaining 46.1 per cent were laying hens.

Labour force

In 2007, the agricultural labour force was made up of 17,148 persons or 4,220 annual work units. Part-time employment amounted to 15,385 persons (89.7 per cent) while 1,763 persons (10.3 per cent) worked on a full-time basis. Males (80.7 per cent) predominated in the agricultural labour force. Of all sole-holder managers, 44.4 per cent reported that they practise a major gainful activity apart from agriculture, while 52.6 per cent stated that they have no other gainful activity. The majority of the latter were either totally engaged in agriculture or were pensioners. 85.8 per cent of all sole-holder managers were 45 years of age or older, while the majority of sole-holder managers work less than 25 per cent of one annual work unit.

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