Extinction of (smallholder) farming

In Belgium, the amount of farms is continuously and dramatically decreasing: 68% of the farms have disappeared between 1980 and 2017 [1]. In other words, in the last 37 years, we have on average lost 40 farms per week. The reasons behind this rapid disappearance of both farmers and knowledge are abundant and interdependent. The lack of a fair pricing for food production is one of the main issues. A Belgian family today spends on average less than 12% on food, while 50 years ago, it was double. The market price of fruit and vegetables is through the auction system completely disconnected from the production price. It is no surprise that 1 in 3 farmers have stopped in the last ten years when figures show that 4 out of 10 Flemish farmers live in poverty and 1 out of 7 has no income at all [2]. In Belgium, 62% of the jobs in the agricultural sector were lost between 1980 and 2016. Obviously, this affects the attractiveness of the profession, leading to a huge lack of successors. Only 13% of all farmers older than 50 have a probable successor and the average age is increasing [3]. Stated differently, this means that 87% of our farming land will change owner in the next ten to fifteen years.

There are no official suicide rates differentiated according to profession in Belgium, but the higher rates in the rural province of West-Flanders proves that suicide amongst farmers is a reality [Jassogne, 2012]. On both sides of the language border, organisations have emerged to accompany farmers with psychological, financial, social or technical problems. Mainly the isolation (23% of the farmers are single in Belgium) and the physical and financial burdens are major factors. As the Flemish non-profit Boeren op een Kruispunt (translated: farmers at a crossroad) witnesses: ‘A psychologist experiences on average one suicide per career, we already know of 28’ [4]. The lack of awareness around this issue is definitely related to the climate of scandal and shame amongst farmers. No farmer wants to admit that they were unable to continue working the land as their ancestors have, although they had lesser administrative burdens and more family and community support [Hens, 2018 & ILVO, 2018b]. Furthermore, even the farmers that want to transition to organic farming are in a lock-in. The CAP (Common Agricultural Land Policy) has led the farmers to make capital-intensive investments that are leaving a lot of them with huge financial debts. In Flanders, the entrepreneurial health of not only small-scale farming but also medium-sized farming is completely compromised by the specialisation investments of the CAP, the market-driven advice of the Boerenbond and the race to the bottom when it comes to pricing [VoedselAnders, 2019]. As dual-purpose cattle farmer Jarno Vandepoel pointed out during the Boerenforum of 2019: 

Also in the regional translation of the CAP or Natura2000 goals, repressive effects arise unintendedly. In the legitimate enforcement of environmental legislation in Flanders, an indispensable flanking policy is, more often than not, lacking. In 2014, for example, many farmers received an orange or red stamp in the context of nitrogen (or PAS) legislation, but often lacked guidance in the transition that was to be made. It rather had a repressive effect as farmers were unwilling or unable to make new investments, especially in places where innovation was essential from a societal perspective. Many of these farmers had to quit their activities, filed for bankruptcy or sold their farms [ILVO, 2018b, p.3].

While the amount of farmers is plummeting at an incredible pace, the loss of farmed land decreases more slowly. Who, then, is still surviving? Bigger fish in the pond. While the amount of farmers is rapidly decreasing, the average plot size per farm has almost tripled. The average farm size is now 40 ha. Land concentration is a European trend, but the high population density of the Belgian territory, the historical small-scale land division and the scarcity of land explains the higher pace here than in other European countries [Roels, 2017]. 

In the dispersed and fragmented urban tissue of the Belgian context, where the price of agricultural land is off the charts, the hectare-based logics of the Common Agricultural Policy are actually supporting the biggest farms to buy out the more numerous small and medium-sized family-owned farms. But not only farmers profit from the CAP system. Research has shown that part of the subsidies are skimmed by loan-providing banks, employers’ organizations and large landowners (such as ecclestial organizations, municipalities and noble families) [VRT]. Money that does not end up with individual farmers and takes away access to land opportunities. The post-war trend of up-scaling and specialisation has not ceased to exist: the individual farmer is disappearing, the production is rising and the scattered plots are bought by the biggest players.

In the last five years, the average price per hectare of agricultural land in Belgium has risen with 26,6% [6]. In urban areas, the price differences between farming land and buildable land are enormous. In this way, the real estate market pushes for changes in land use, turning the cheaper agricultural land into buildable land. As such, the scarcity of agricultural land keeps increasing and, along with it, the price of the land. From an agro-economic point of view, the average return of agricultural activity is 25.000 to 30.000 € per hectare over a period of 35 to 40 years [VILT, 2017]. It is today, however, totally impossible to find land that is cheaper than 25.000 € per hectare in the whole of Belgium. In West-Flanders, where the average plot size is higher than the rest of Flanders, the price is even double, with an average of 64.272 € per hectare. What is more, these numbers are based on the return of the two most common types of farming in Flanders in terms of amount of land, being specialized livestock farming and grain production.