Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much land has been lost from farming and agriculture in (a) England, (b) the North West and (c) Cumbria in each of the last 10 years.
[128369]
Answer
The total area on commercial1 agricultural holdings in England, the North West region and Cumbria for each of the last 10 years are show in the following table. The areas have remained largely unchanged over the past decade.
| Area
(hectares) | |||
| England | North
West and
Merseyside | Cumbria | |
| 2002 | 9,000,367 | 874,521 | 453,355 |
| 2003 | 9,077,666 | 888,108 | 457,304 |
| 2004 | 9,065,061 | 886,710 | 455,471 |
| 2005 | 9,168,414 | 895,398 | 460,165 |
| 2006 | 9,220,534 | 926,581 | 478,291 |
| 2007 | 9,173,625 | 908,244 | 461,668 |
| 2008 | 9,212,205 | 919,755 | 468,608 |
| 2009 | 8,976,477 | 901,308 | 465,540 |
| 2010 | 8,887,287 | 878,791 | 450,697 |
| 2011 | 8,915,247 | 884,916 | 454,152 |
| 2012 | 8,985,135 | n/a | n/a |
| n/a
= These areas are not yet available as the detailed geographical
dataset is yet to be produced for the 2012 June Survey
results. 1 Commercial holdings are those with significant levels of farming activity. These significant levels are classified as any holding with more than 5 hectares of agricultural land, 1 hectare of orchards, 0.5 hectares of vegetables or 0.1 hectares of protected crops, or more than 10 cows, 50 pigs, 20 sheep, 20 goats or 1,000 poultry. |