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Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing

September 2007

Photograph of a tractor

Introduction

Agriculture, forestry and fishing together accounted for just 1.1% of the total UK economy in terms of its gross value added in 2004; agriculture's contribution alone stood at £5.3bn or just 0.5% of national GVA in 2005. However, agriculture also forms part of a much larger agri-food sector comprising food and drink manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing, together with non-residential catering with an estimated value of nearly £73bn in 2005 or 6.9% of the total economy. Moreover, the impact of these primary industries in terms of a wide range of other issues from their wider economic implications (e.g. providing employment often where other job opportunities are limited and providing essential goods both for other industries and consumers), land use management and environmental quality to animal welfare and self-sufficiency is far greater. Indeed, despite shares haven fallen over many years, overall the UK remains about 58% self-sufficient for all its food requirements and about 72% for indigenous foods (Table 1). In addition, agriculture has an important European dimension linked with the Common Agricultural Policy which seeks to increase farm productivity, raise far income and increase living standards, help stabilise markets for primary products and ensure the availability and stability of supplies for customers and consumers.

Agriculture, Hunting and Related Service Activities

Agriculture represents the largest single land use in Lancashire and as well as its farming potential is of some considerable importance in terms of its role in safeguarding the environment and rural economy. With about 225,000ha or 73% of its total land area under farming use, the Lancashire region has a large agricultural resource base that makes a major contribution to the nation's food supply. The types of farming supported cover a remarkably wide range extending from intensive horticulture and general cropping in the coastal plains, dairying in the other lowland areas to cattle and sheep rearing in the upland regions. A significant proportion of these uplands are designated as "Less Favoured Areas", highlighting the limitations facing some farming enterprises in the county.

Agricultural land quality varies across the sub-region (Table 2 and Figure 1). The most productive land is concentrated in the west of the County (mostly in the Fylde and West Lancashire) where much is classified by DEFRA as top grades 1 and 2, capable of growing a very wide range of agricultural and horticultural crops. Indeed, these areas represent the largest concentration of top quality farmland in the west of Britain. Elsewhere land quality is less favourable: over 42% of the county's land is classified as being of poorer quality grades 4 and 5 against 21% nationally. These poorer grades of land are best suited at best to grass crops or to rough grazing.

Map showing the agricultural classification of Lancashire's land - see text for details Source DEFRA

Agricultural Activities

The easily cultivated peat, light alluvial and sandy soils in the west of the sub-region support intensive arable cropping and coupled with the proximity of large urban markets in the towns and cities of the North West have encouraged the growth of an important horticultural industry which now supplies the national market. The area, particularly in the south west of the county is a significant producer of field vegetables such as carrots, cabbage, lettuce, brussels sprouts, beetroot and celery. There are also important centres of glasshouse production specialising in tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber for the national market. As well as horticultural production there are important cropping areas where the production of cereals, crops for stock-feeding, potatoes, sugar beet or rapeseed is dominant. Overall, approximately 12% of the Lancashire agricultural area is given over to cropping compared with a share of about 41% in England.

Over Lancashire as a whole, livestock and dairy farming is more important than arable production with about 84% of the total agricultural area being used for grassland or rough grazing purposes (England=49%). A mild moist climate and the suitability of soils favours grass growth and coupled with high standards of husbandry and high capital investment in fixed equipment is the foundation of the productive dairying characteristics of many areas. The large milk fields in the lowlands of the Fylde Plain and the Ribble and Lune Valleys are of national importance and support important dairy processing and animal feeding-stuffs industries in the County. Sheep and beef farming are important throughout the uplands. Pig and poultry holdings are also numerous and widespread in the lowland areas of the County but cover a relatively small area of land.

Business and Employment Characteristics

Since the Second World War, agriculture in Lancashire as elsewhere in the UK has become bigger, more intensive and more specialised. Output and productivity have increased enormously and in real terms, food prices have fallen. As a measure of this, household final consumption expenditure on food (including both household food and food eaten outside the home) accounted for just 15% of total household final consumption expenditure in 2006; thirty-five years previously the equivalent figure was close to quarter of household expenditure. Both the number of farms in Lancashire and the people employed on them have declined steadily for decades. The swing from arable to less labour intensive grass in the local production pattern, increased mechanisation, improved production techniques, more efficient use of labour, the loss of holdings through urban developments and the availability of greater financial rewards to employees in jobs outside the industry all contributed to the long-term fall in agricultural employment.

Graph showing how the number of VAT-registered agricultural businesses in Lancashire has changed from 1980 to 2006 - see text for details Source Small Business Service - VAT Registrations and De-registrations

Despite these decades of steady employment decline agriculture and horticulture still provide significant employment opportunities and in many rural areas, particularly in the more remote upland areas, remains the mainstay of local economic activity. There are about 6,800 farm holdings in the Lancashire region, including some 2,905 which are VAT-registered (representing 7.4% of all such businesses in Lancashire), the number of which have been progressively falling (Figure 2). The size of local holdings is on average smaller than elsewhere in the country, presumably reflecting the large number of horticultural holdings, which are generally small: nearly 47% of all farm holdings locally are less than 5ha compared with 42% in England. The average farm size is around 40 hectares compared with about 60 hectares in England although there has been some increase in larger holdings over 100 hectares over the past decade. About 58% of the agricultural land is owner occupied; the rest is tenanted or rented.

Bar chart showing the number of jobs in agriculture in each of Lancashire's local authorities - see text for details Source DEFRA - Agricultural and Horticultural Census, England

In terms of jobs, the local industry has a total workforce (including farmers, managers, employees and casual labour) of some 12,300 people or about 3.4% of the England total. Over recent years the size of the workforce has been variable year-on-year, partly reflecting seasonal considerations and the use of casual workers though the general pattern has been one of a steady reduction in numbers across all categories (in 1980 the Lancashire agricultural workforce stood at 16,500). Part-time working amongst both own account farmers and employees appears to have grown in importance. The proportion of farmers working part-time now stands at more than 50% and that of employees at over a third. Close to 10% of the local agricultural workforce consists of casual labour. Nearly a quarter of the total agricultural workforce is based in West Lancashire district where many of the larger commercial growers and packers are to be found (Figure 3). A further 36% of the workforce are based in Lancaster, Ribble Valley and Wyre.

Generally, the industry remains highly fragmented and most agricultural enterprises are small, family-owned concerns. The sector does, however, also support considerable employment in off-farm supply industries like auction marts, produce packaging, haulage, agricultural machinery manufacture and servicing, agro-chemicals and prepared animal feeds and is the basis of large local dairy processing and meat products sectors. In business terms it is a fairly stable sector with both unusually low rates of new business formation compared with other industries and high business survival, though the long-term trend towards the consolidation of holdings is continuing.

Examples of agricultural-based enterprises across Lancashire include (External) Dawndew Salad Ltd , Poulton-le-Fylde based commercial salad growers; (External) Dewlay Products Ltd , Garstang dairy farmers and traditional cheese manufacturers; (External) Dunbia (Sawley) , formerly Rose Country Foods, beef abattoir and beef-deboning plant, distributing local beef and lamb products throughout the UK; (External) Flavourfresh Solfresh Group of Banks, West Lancashire, leading UK salad producer; (External) George Speight & Sons Ltd , long-established Lancaster-based supplier of fresh and ready prepared fruit and vegetables; (External) Hazeldene Foods Ltd of Tarleton, producer of prepared salads and vegetables; and (External) Huntapac Produce Ltd , growers, packers and distributors of organic and conventional rootr vegetables, brassicas and salads.

Photograph of Dunbia (Sawley) beef abbatoir and beef deboning plant

Today, modern agriculture is under considerable pressure for change. Indeed, many believe that Britain is heading for the biggest change in the use and appearance of its countryside since the unprecedented expansion of agriculture after the Second World War. It is being shaped by many of the same technologies transforming other industries, but is also subject to unique political and economic constraints of its own. It is expected to produce an abundance of cheap food but at the same time take account of environmental concerns and look after rural landscapes, the welfare of farmyard animals and the health of consumers. Increasingly, farmers are supposed to respond to market forces, yet find themselves so insulated in some areas such as through European support policies and so marginalised in others that they can scarcely manoeuvre.

Photograph of some cows grazing

Poor financial returns in a number of agricultural sectors are forcing many farm enterprises to look more carefully at diversification as a means of improving the viability of their core farm businesses. In some cases this can take the form of developing non-agricultural activities such as the provision of accommodation and facilities to encourage tourism, sport, recreation or other outdoors activities. There is still scope in Lancashire for the further development of this kind of activity though it is becoming more competitive and farm businesses most in need of an additional income are often not best placed to raise the high levels of investment capital required. Others are looking more closely at moving up the value chain by entering directly into food processing activities or using innovative marketing and quality assurance schemes to create or to raise brand awareness. This approach has been very successfully used in Lancashire in a collaborative initiative between a consortium of dairy farmers and a local supermarket chain to develop Bowland Milk into a successful regional brand now widely stocked by many local supermarkets across the North West as a premium product. Diversification can also be achieved by moving into the production of organic production, both of livestock and crops. Though this particular market has proven fickle in the past, it now appears to becoming more mainstream. Current organic production in Lancashire is limited in extent at present though there are thought to be good opportunities in the horticultural sector where supermarkets are raising their demand for organic vegetables, often procured from overseas. Other alternative products include the production of novel crops for industrial use (flax and hemp for example) or for use as bio-fuels to help meet the Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation on regional electricity companies.

Forecasts for the industry's future prospects are highly uncertain, largely because of the many unique imponderables it faces. In particular, underlying trends are heavily shaped by exchange rates and world commodity prices that are themselves highly uncertain to forecast. Moreover, as recent circumstances have all too dramatically indicated, ad hoc events such as weather conditions or disease outbreaks can be highly disruptive and can push incomes well above or below underlying trends in individual years.

At a practical level, current prevailing low average returns and wage levels, the perceived future instability of the industry, length of hours worked and the general isolation/fragmentation of the industry have all served to severely reduce confidence in the longer-term future of the sector. High land values and rents, the high start-up costs of capital intensive farming and the profit margins needed to repay interest are also major impediments to setting up new farm enterprises, particularly as the total income from farming has fallen to historically low levels and are climbing again only slowly. The local industry is also facing problems of an ageing workforce with proportionately fewer young people and more older people working in the sector than in other occupational sectors. The relatively high proportion of older farmers reflects the fact that in many cases the business does not have a successor.

Fishing

The fishing industry in Lancashire has traditionally been associated with the port of Fleetwood and has declined considerably since the town's heyday as the major west coast long-distance fishing port and processing centre and the fifth largest of all Britain's fishing ports. A large scale fishing industry in Fleetwood was established well over a century ago and the port's rail links enabled special trains to supply the demand for fish from an expanding national market

Photograph of fishing boats in a harbour

The earliest statistics available, for 1929, suggest that the fishing industry provided direct employment for some 2,650 people or nearly a quarter of Fleetwood's insured employees. Some modest decline over the next decade allied to growth in other sectors of activity reduced this dependency to about a fifth of employees by 1939. The industry's post-war peak in direct employment in 1950 of some 2,500 employees represented about 15% of the total insured local workforce in Fleetwood. However, as well as providing direct employment, as a primary industry fishing also supported many jobs in associated industries such as shipbuilding and marine engineering, mechanical handling equipment, rope, twine and net manufacture, wooden containers and baskets and transport, as well as fish processing itself. Indeed, for every direct job in fishing in Fleetwood, there were reckoned to be two associated shore-based jobs.

For three decades post-1945 the port of Fleetwood was largely dependent on the Icelandic fishing grounds and had a substantial deep-water fleet of large vessels landing major supplies of fish, particularly cod. At its peak, fish landings in Fleetwood by British and foreign vessels were about 70,000 tonnes per annum. Over much of the 1950s and 1960s modernisation of the fleet and the gradual substitution of medium-sized for smaller boats led to a steady and persistent fall in employment in the industry but serious contraction followed only in the aftermath of the Icelandic fishing dispute in the mid-1970s. The industry had come to depend on Icelandic waters for the bulk of its catch: the dispute over fishing grounds and the subsequent restriction on British vessels in Icelandic waters had very severe effects and fish landings and employment plummeted as the industry underwent a massive contraction.

In terms of direct employment, fishing is now a very minor employer in County terms providing jobs for less than 100 employees, mainly on the basis of in-shore fishing. However, fish landings, currently in the order of 1,000 tonnes per annum, supplemented by fish brought overland from other ports in Cumbria, North Wales, Ireland and Scotland continue to support a modest local fish marketing and processing industry and inland there is a tiny presence in trout fish hatcheries.

Forestry and Logging

Approximately 14,100 hectares or 4.6% of Lancashire's land area is given over to woodland of 0.1 ha and over. Approximately 3,470ha or 1.6% of Lancashire's total farmed area is given over to woodland. A handful of forestry and woodland management occupations are to be found in Lancashire but this sector has been and remains insignificant as an employer.

Go here to see additional statistics on agriculture in Lancashire and its constituent districts.

This page was compiled by Peter Kivell .

All enquiries from the media should be sent to Corporate.Communications@lancashire.gov.uk .

Any other questions about the content of this page may be sent to EconInfo@lancashire.gov.uk .

For all enquiries about the county council's services , contact the Customer Service Centre on 0845 0530000 (01772 530000) or at Enquiries@css.lancscc.gov.uk .

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