A typology for territorial diversity in farming in Europe

Abstract

This article proposes a typology to describe the diversity of European livestock territories, based on two simple criteria: the share of permanent grassland within the usable agricultural area (UAA) and the stocking density expressed in Livestock Units (LU) per hectare of UAA. Applied to the Farm Structure Survey, this typology distinguishes six types of territories, which are located on a map of the European Union. Using the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), we reveal the high diversity of farms (in terms of structure, level of intensification, productivity, dependence on subsidies...) both across territories and within each of them. This work introduced framing knowledge to the other articles published in this special issue which are targeted on specific territories or types of livestock production.