Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to detail the number of hectares of agricultural land that have been taken out of use for farming in each of the last ten years.
Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs: The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs does not collect data on agricultural land that has been taken out of use for farming. The table below shows the total area farmed, as reported in the annual farm census in each of the last ten years.
| Annual Farm Census | Total Area Farmed (Ha) |
| 2015 | 997,748 |
| 2016 | 1,013,248 |
| 2017 | 1,019,736 |
| 2018 | 1,022,395 |
| 2019 | 1,023,163 |
| 2020 | 1,029,822 |
| 2021 | 1,035,642 |
| 2022 | 1,043,270 |
| 2023 | 1,042,318 |
| 2024 | 1,040,392 |
Total area farmed has increased by 4.3% in the ten years from 2015 to 2024. New methodologies were adopted to create the farm sample and improve the quality of estimates in 2020. The change in total area farmed of 0.7% between 2019 and 2020 suggests changes had negligible effect on the land area variables.
ENDS
Your MLA 