Census of agriculture (discontinued), 1999

The new Allodial Act entered into force in 1974, but had retroactive effect so that girls born in 1965 or later were given the same rights as boys. The average age of persons taking over farms is just over 40 years of age, so the full impact of the Allodial Act has yet to be felt. The census results show that more and more women are invoking their allodial rights, although they still lag behind men.

Few of the larger farms with land in production have been taken over by women. In the last four years, 20 per cent of farms with more than 150 decares of agricultural land in production have been taken over by women, while around 27 per cent of the smaller farms have been taken over by women.

Larger share taken over without allodial rights

Of the 9 000 holdings that changed hands in the last four years, 23 per cent were taken over without allodial rights. In practice this means that the properties were sold on the open market. Not surprisingly a larger percentage of the smallest farms were sold on the open market. A similar survey in 1992 showed that 15 per cent of the farms were taken over without allodial rights.

The demand for small farms is currently far greater than the supply and is probably the reason why several small farms have been bought without allodial rights in recent years.

Of altogether 72 000 farms with land in production, 65 400 were owned by owner/operators. The remaining nine per cent were leased or rented as independent holdings.

Many farmers without agricultural training

Education has become an issue in farming too. There has been talk at times of requiring those who would like to farm to have vocational training or a degree in agriculture. Last year's census showed that Norway has a way to go before all farmers have one or another form of formal education in agriculture. In 1999 four in 10 men had one or another form of agricultural training, most at the agronomist or higher level. By comparison, only one in 10 women had agricultural training.

The number of farmers with agricultural training is far higher than it used to be. In 1979 one in four farmers and in 1989 one in three farmers had such training. Women were virtually absent in these surveys.

In Trøndelag, 50 per cent of the men and 12 per cent of the women have had at least five months of training or courses in agriculture. Around 30 per cent of the men in Western Norway and Northern Norway have agricultural training. The figure only covers single farmers and farm couples and not their children, parents and other people working on the farm.

Sample of complete census

The newest results presented in this article are based on a sample of examined questionnaires from the complete 1999 farm census. For this reason, the figures cannot be broken down into smaller levels such as counties and municipalities. The suppliers of the data recorded their labour input as man-hours, but in this article man-hours have been converted into man-years. A man-year in agriculture or horticulture is 1 875 hours, while a man-year in other contexts is 1 750 hours. Caution should be exercised in comparing the results with earlier surveys.

Tables:

• Table 1 Number of holdings with agricultural area in use transferred with allodial rights by year and sex, by region, size of holding, area of grain and oil seeds and number of milking cows. 1999*
• Table 2 Number of holdings with agricultural area in use taken over/not taken over by allodial rights and year, by region, size of holding, area of grain and oil seeds and number of milking cows. 1999*
• Table 3 Personal holders with spouse by agricultural training, by region, size of holding, area of grain and oil seeds and number of dairy cows. 1979, 1989 og 1999*.