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6 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 2 FEBRUARY 2022 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 A total of 2,514 holdings or 24.1% originated from the Western district. This was fol- lowed by the Northern and Gozo and Comino districts with 2,174 (20.8%) and 2,115 hold- ings (20.2%), respectively. The Northern Harbour district had the lowest number of agricul- tural holdings at 768 or 7.3% of the total. The National Statistics Office (NSO) in collaboration with the Agriculture Directorate within the Ministry for Agricul- ture, Fisheries, Food and Ani- mal rights (MAFA) conducted the Census of Agriculture for the reference year 2020 to take stock of the activities being car- ried out by farmers, livestock breeders and beekeepers in both Malta and Gozo. This statistical exercise is used to analyse the changes that this sector may have gone through since the last comparable exer- cise in 2010. The 2020 Census of Agricul- ture was carried out in con- formity with the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1874, and was co-financed by the same European Commis- sion. The relevant statistical data was collected from all the registered agricultural holdings over a five-month period start- ing from October 2020. The reference date for live- stock statistics was set at 30 September 2020, while the ref- erence period for crop cultiva- tion, land use and the agricul- tural labour force covered the period from 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020. Holdings The majority of the agricultur- al holdings (98.7%) were found to be run by sole holders. Hold- ings that were found to be man- aged by groups, partnerships and companies accounted for 1.3%. Farmers who were both the farm manager and the sole holder of the activity accounted for 93.8% of all the sole-hold- er agricultural holdings inter- viewed in the census. Agricultural managers were mostly male, with 11.1% be- ing female. Moreover, manag- ers aged 44 years and younger amounted to 17.6% of the to- tal, compared to 16.8% in 2010. Managers aged 65 years and over accounted for 35.9% of the total. The 2020 Census of Agricul- ture revealed that most of the holdings in Malta were rela- tively small, with 7,280 holdings (69.7%) managed a Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA) of less than one hectare. Medi- um-sized agricultural holdings that managed between one to five hectares of land amount- ed to 2,904 (27.8%), while 265 holdings (2.5%) were consid- ered large, managing over five hectares of UAA. Moreover, it resulted that a total of 4,327 agricultural hold- ings, accounting for 41.4% of all holdings, produced prod- ucts for their own consumption while the remaining 6,122 hold- ings, or 58.6%, sold all or a share of their produce through the various available market niches. Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA) In 2020, the total UAA in MALTA amounted to 10,730 hectares. A total of 3,252 hec- tares or 30.3% of the entire UAA, were found to be situat- ed in the Western district. This was followed by the Northern and Gozo and Comino districts with 2,541 (23.7%) and 2,449 hectares (22.8%) respectively. Regarding the type of tenure of the agricultural land areas, the results showed that these were predominantly rented from the Government (49.6%). The rest of the agricultural land areas were either owner occupied (27.9%) or rented from private owners (22.5%). Arable land accounted for 72.5% of the total UAA, while permanent crops and kitchen gardens made up the remaining 8.9 and 18.6% of the UAA re- spectively. Over the last 10 years, there has been a downward trend in arable land and permanent crops cultivation areas, while the area used for kitchen gar- dens has increased. Moreover, it resulted that the cultivation of forage crops (67.5%) was pre- dominant in the use of arable land. The total area designated for permanent crops in 2020 amounted to 953 hectares, of which 456 hectares were ded- icated to vineyards and whose cultivation declined by 158 hec- tares when compared to 2010. Similarly, areas of fruit and ber- ry plantations decreased by an area of 143 hectares over the 10-year span. On the contrary, areas of olive plantations in- creased by 14 hectares. Livestock In 2020, MALTA had a total of 241 cattle farms with a cattle population of 14,447 heads of which, 5,996 were dairy cows. This figure represents a decline of 7.9% in the cattle population from 15,688 heads in 2010. A decrease of 17.2% was also re- corded over the 10-year period in the number of cattle farms, from 291 farms in 2010 to 241 in 2020. Moreover, during 2020, the number of reared sheep stood at 16,177 heads. Although there was a decline of 11.8% in the holdings engaged in this activity from 1,081 holdings in 2010 to 953 holdings in 2020, the sheep population increased by 36.3% over this 10-year span. Similar- ly, the number of reared goats increased by 31.5%, from 4,384 heads in 2010 to 5,764 in 2020, whereas the number of hold- ings in this activity declined by 15.5%, from 595 holdings in 2010 to 503 in 2020. On a similar trend, the pig population stood at 40,090 in 2020, marking a decline of 43.2% over 2010. Also, the number of pig farms in Malta declined by 29.5% over the same 10-year pe- riod, from 132 farms in 2010 to 93 farms in 2020. A total of one million poultry heads was recorded in 2020; of which, 696,010 (67.3%) were broilers. This figure decreased by 17.7% over that of 2010 when 846,143 heads were recorded. A similar decline of 27.9% was also reg- istered in the number of hold- ings in this agricultural activity, from 154 in 2010 to 111 in 2020. On the contrary, however, the number of laying hens increased by 12.6% in the 10-year period under review, from 300,667 in 2010 to 338,516 in 2020. Not- withstanding this, the number of holdings engaged in the latter agricultural activity dropped by 27.1%, from 652 in 2010 to 475 in 2020. A total of 7,326 breeding fe- male rabbits were recorded as being reared in 2020 (Table 17), whereas the total number of kept beehives amounted to 3,625. Agricultural holdings decreased by 14% between 2010 and 2020