According to the subsidy applications of the farmers the grain cultivation area this year is the smallest in 15 years and turnip rape area is the larger than ever before. Other significant changes are also expected in the arable area. Besides farmers own sowing decisions the final use of arable land in Finland is affected by capricious spring weather. Heavy rain and hail storms have destroyed some sowings at least in Southwest Finland in spring 2010. Tike will publish the next advance information on use of arable land of summer 2010 on 22 June, when information pertaining to particular areas will also be available.


Huge drop in barley and oat areas
According to the subsidy application information from April the sowing area of grain will diminish from last year by almost 170,000 hectares (- 14%). The grain cultivation area – 1.0 million hectares - is 45% of the entire cultivation area. Cultivation of the two largest grains measured by cultivation area, barley and oat, will diminish according to current information by even 192,000 hectares. Both wheat and rye areas will increase by approximately 10,000 hectares. Diminution of barley and oat area was expected, because in the last few years’ grain has been produced beyond our needs and profitability of production has decreased due to decline in prices.

Oilseed area grows by 75,000 hectares
Turnip rape area, 137,000 hectares, will double in from 2009. Also swede rape area, 18,200 hectares, is exceptionally large. Furthermore, flax area will increase to 2,800 hectares. Cultivation area of oilseeds will altogether increase by 75,000 hectares. This many oilseeds have never before grown in arable land in Finland.

Broad bean 10,000 hectares
Broad bean area (10,000 hectares) and pea area (6,300 hectares) are also of record sizes even though their area is small in comparison to barley and oat areas. The broad bean area will quadruple and the pea area will increase by 1.5 times from 2009.

No great changes are taking place in potato (24,600 hectares) and sugar beet (14,700 hectares) areas, provided that the areas informed in the subsidy applications will materialise. Southwest Finland is a significant cultivation area for sugar beet so the final cultivation area will only be known once the effect of the recent rains to the sowing areas is known. The progressive decrease of the potato area continues as it has done for several decades.

Area of fodder forage is increasing
Forage areas that are less than 5 years old i.e. mainly warehouse fodder, dry grass and pastureland areas will increase according to estimates by almost 18,000 hectares from the previous year. The total area for forage plants is approximately 658,000 hectares.

Fallow area 293,000 hectares
The fallow area will increase by over a quarter, i.e. by 62,800 hectares. The fallow area is uncultivated arable land. The majority of the fallow area is in the subsidy applications areas informed as nature preservation fields (over 160,000 hectares). Grass grows on the major part of fallow. Green manure grass is also part of fallow area, and its area doubled since 2009. Pursuant to the subsidy applications there is approximately 58,000 hectares of green manure grass.

Tike’s advance estimate of utilised agricultural area is based on information on subsidy application forms submitted by farmers by 30 April 2010.  By 2 June 2010, approx. 93% of the data on cultivated parcels had been recorded. Farmers may notify changes to sown areas up to 15 June 2010, so the areas will change yet.

Tike will publish advance information based on more extensive data on the utilised agricultural area in its Matilda agricultural statistics service (www.agriculturalstatistics.fi) on 22 June. Regional data will also be available at that time.

Additional information
Anneli Partala, Researcher, Tel. +358 20 77 21376
Liisa Siitonen, Researcher, Tel. +358 20 77 21390
E-mail addresses are in the format forename.surname@mmmtike.fi