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Overview of agriculture in Commonwealth Europe
There are three Commonwealth member countries in Europe, all of which are island countries. In these, the average agriculture, forestry, and fishing value added (percent of GDP) is 1 percent. Additionally, the sector employs 1.49 percent of the population.1 Despite the limited contribution to GDP and employment, the agriculture sector is important to the economies of Commonwealth Europe, as it has a direct impact on food security and livelihoods.
Cyprus
- Agriculture holdings in Cyprus are organised in parcels, with a given holding owning a given number of parcels of land. The average number of parcels (2003 data) is five (5) and the average size of a parcel is 0.7 hectares. Based on this, the average land size per holding as of 2003 was 3.5 hectares. In 2010, the average land size per holding reduced to 3.0 hectares.
- Most (74 percent) of the holdings in Cyprus operate on small land sizes of 0.1 ha to 1.9 hectares.
- Agriculture in Cyprus is characterised by farming on rented land (52 percent), owned land (46 percent), and in partnership between the landlord and the sharecropper under a written or oral share-farming contract (2 percent).2
Malta
- Agriculture in Malta is characterised by small-scale family production. The average size of agriculture holdings in the country is 0.9 hectares.
- Family labour accounts for 90 percent of volume of agriculture work.
- Family holdings can be owned by the farmer (23.8 percent) or rented (76.2 percent).3
United Kingdom
- In England and Wales, around 33 percent of all agricultural land is rented. The remaining 77 percent is farmed by the actual owners.4
“There are three Commonwealth member countries in Europe, all of which are island countries.”
“All the three countries in Europe that are members of the Commonwealth have low levels of vulnerability to climate change and a high level of readiness.”
Systemic constraints affecting agriculture in Commonwealth Europe
Countries across Commonwealth Europe face several systemic constraints to developing their agricultural sectors.
These include:
- Climate vulnerability and agricultural productivity
- Access to finance and investment
- Market, trade and supply chain issues
- Women and youth inclusion
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State of digital agriculture in Africa
The state of digital agriculture in the region is assessed using the digital agriculture framework described under the methodology section.
It consists of (I) digital agriculture innovations, (II) agriculture data infrastructure, (III) business development services, and (IV) the enabling environment for the digitalisation of agriculture.
“Despite the limited contribution to GDP and employment, the agriculture sector is important to the economies of Commonwealth Europe, as it has a direct impact on food security and livelihoods.”
i
Digital agriculture innovations
- The study assessed 99 digital solutions in the United Kingdom, Malta and Cyprus. The predominant use cases of the mapped solutions and their classification is shown as follows.
- More than half of the assessed solutions have a data management and research component in their product offering. This is similarly the case in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
- Though mobile applications are the most common form of technologies, there is an equally high penetration of smart farming technologies like AI models and sensors.
Distribution of Digital Agricultural Solutions by Use Case
Crop-based pre-harvest advisory
Research and data management
Market linkages
n=99 solutions
ii
Agriculture data infrastructure
- In the United Kingdom, technology is being used to capture soil data.
- The European Union also provides regular agri-statistical data for member countries, with the most recent being from the Eurostat 2020 agricultural survey.
- Both the Cypriot and Maltese authorities collect data on weather and atmospheric conditions.
- The Government of Malta has a national farmers’ register that offers personalised web-based access to the Land Parcel Identification System (IACS)
“In Cyprus and Malta, the European soil data centre has geo-referenced soil information about the various soil attributes in the region.”
iii
Business development services
- Due to the significantly large size of farming operations in countries such as the United Kingdom, there is a large incentive to pay for digital agriculture solutions for farmers in the region.
- In addition, as with several other regions that have several large-scale farming operations, the sale of agricultural machinery is also bundled with digital agriculture solutions in many cases.
“Commonwealth Europe countries have digital agricultural spaces that benefit greatly from the presence of large agricultural machinery manufacturers.”
iv
Enabling environment for digitalisation
- The enabling environment for agriculture digitalisation consists of technology and non-technology enablers and barriers.
- Technology enablers include access to internet-enabled and mobile devices, penetration of smartphone devices, network coverage, and internet-related infrastructure that enables digital solutions and technologies.
- Non-technology enablers include regional demography, education levels amongst farming populations, mobile network-friendly policies, and financing models for mobile devices.
Internet use, proportion of population
United Kingdom
Malta
Cyprus
Lessons learned to fast-track digitalisation
Lessons learned from Commonwealth Europe countries to increase investment in digital agriculture innovation and scale-up solutions to market include:
- Robust regulation regarding the use of farmer data in digital agriculture solutions
- The active role of the private sector in facilitating data-driven smart farming
- State-enabled roll-out of 5G networks
- Leveraging public-private partnerships to increase available connectivity bandwidth
- Having farms operate as business entities drives up digital solution uptake
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Footnotes
1 Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, FAOSTAT. Data retrieved on August 8th, 2021. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data
2 Eurostat.,2012, Agriculture Census in Cyprus, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Archive:Agricultural_census_in_Cyprus&oldid=347641
3 Eurostat, Agriculture Census in Malta, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Archive:Agricultural_census_in_Malta&oldid=379558
4 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs., 2019, Census of agriculture in the UK 2019 Report, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/Government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950618/AUK-2019-07jan21.pdf