In England, Scotland and Wales there is a broad division between the drier eastern lowlands, where arable farming of cereals predominates, and the wetter uplands in the west, where dairy and sheep farming are more common.
In the UK, agriculture covers 76% of the land area of England and Wales, high by European standards. Total land use for agriculture in the UK is around 18,000,000 hectares with approximately 175,000 main farm holdings.
Farming remains the dominant use of land in England despite the decline in farm numbers and farm employment. The number of farm has reduced by about 50% since 1950.
Because the amount of land in agriculture is not shrinking as fast as farm number, average farm size is increasing. In many parts of England farm sizes are larger than in other parts of the EU and farm productivity is high.
Although the total area of UK cereals has declined, the area of wheat has increased, more than doubling in the case of England.
Increasing national self-sufficiency is evident in wheat, sheep meat, beef and butter for example, whereas falling levels have continued for eggs, poultry meat and potatoes.
Self- sufficiency in barley has fallen in line with its reduced area under cultivation.
Agriculture in United Kingdom
