Sample survey of agriculture and forestry, 2003, preliminary figures

On agricultural holdings, 130 million man-hours of a total of 141 million were carried out in agriculture and horticulture. The labour input in forestry was 4.5 million man-hours, and in supplementary industries 6.3 million. Labour input in forestry on properties without own farming is not included in these figures.

Total labour input on holdings with agriculture has dropped from 166 million man-hours in 1998/1999 to 141 million man-hours in 2002/2003. This represents a decline of 15 per cent or 13 400 full time man-years.

Agriculture and horticulture

The labour input in agriculture and horticulture corresponded to 70 500 man-years in 2002/2003.73 per cent of the labour input was conducted by holders and spouses/cohabitants, while family members, regularly and temporarily employees conducted the rest. 60 per cent of the holdings had labour input corresponding to one man-year or more, while one out of five holdings had labour input less than half a man-year each.

Supplementary industries

Labour input in supplementary industries was 6.3 million man-hours in 2002/2003. Supplementary industries are activities that utilise a holdings land, buildings or machinery. Machinery-related services were the most frequent supplementary industry, in which 9 100 holdings were engaged in 2002/2003.

Comparability with other surveys

Labour input in agriculture was also collected in the sample survey of agriculture and forestry in 2001. Unfortunately, labour input in horticulture was not satisfactory collected in this investigation. Until the results from the survey in 2001 have been re-examined, figures for 2003 are compared with results from the Census of Agriculture in 1999.

Tables:

• Table 1 Labour input on holdings. 1975/76-2002/03*. Million man-hours
• Table 2 Labour input in agriculture and horticulture, forestry and other supplementary industries on the holding, by county. 1 000 man-hours
• Table 3 Labour input at the holding, by category of manpower and county. 1 000 man-hours
• Table 4 Labour input in horticulture and agriculture, by sex, category of manpower and county. 1 000 man-hours
• Table 5 Holdings by number of full-time equivalents employed in agriculture and horticulture and county (Corrected 11 May 2004)
• Table 6 Holdings with supplementary industry by type of supplementary industry, by county. 1998/99 and 2002/03*