Zu den Veränderungen landwirtschaftlicher Nutzflächen in Finnland und deren Zukunftsperspektiven

Abstract

The development of the corporate structure in Finnish agriculture has remained behind that of other western states, as a large settlement project was realised in Finland after the wars; as a result of this, uninhabited areas housed new, small agricultural companies, and new arable land was developed. In the middle of the sixties, there were more than 300000 farms in Finland with more than one hectare land; the total sum of their fields amounted to 2,7 million ha. Self-sufficiency with the most important foods was achieved in Finland during the fifties; since the sixties, overproduction has been a problem. From then until Finland joined the EU, the limitation of overproduction was a central element of Finnish agricultural policies. Closure of farms and fallow land received special subsidies. In the middle of the nineties, only 94 000 active farms rema ined, covering a total surface of roughly 2 million ha. Predictions say that, by the year 2005, the number of active farms will drop to half the number of when Finland joined the EU. The agricultural land will not shrink to the same extent , as the subsidisation policies of the EU which refer to the land require of the farmers that the fields belonging to closed farms are purchased or leased. In EU Finland, the best chances for successful production were seen in the keeping of dairy animals. However, the main focus of keeping dairy animals has, during the decades, wandered quite far to the North. In the fields along the southern and south- western coast, crops and some special plants are grown in the most suitable fields. The outlook for crop production are much worse than those of dairy production in green fields. It is certainly true that it is necessary to find alternative uses for the fields which are now longer required for traditional agriculture, so as to ensure that the best fields do not lie destitute and reduce the beauty of the landscape in the rural regions. It has never been popular in Finland to plant trees in the fields, although the state provides subsidies. On the other hand, there are considerably large forests in Finland, so that expansive additional forests in the unused fields would make the landscape in the rural regions even more monotonous. Biological farming, however, could be expanded in Finland. As is expressed in AGENDA 2000, the EU will continue to provide subsidies for biological farming and other diversification possibilities of agriculture. The fields which will no longer be used for traditional farming could also be used for the so-called non-food production, for example to grow energy and fibre plants. For example, by cultivating stalked plants, it would be possible to replace short-fibre deciduous trees, whose fibres are needed in the fine paper industry in addition to the coniferous tree fibres. There is such a lack of these trees in Finland that a large proportion of the deciduous tree wood is imported from Russia.