A farmer's view on the Baltic Sea - MTK

about 200 000 ha. Of those Natura 2000 areas 129 are established as habitat sites and 30
areas are bird sites (some areas are overlapping).
Agriculture
In 2010, there were 1 506 commercial farms of various sizes with more than 2 ha of land.
That is a drop of 1 223 farms since 1979. Over the past 30 years, the average size of the
farms has risen from 30.5 ha to 57 ha (average size is 37 ha in the whole Sweden). The total
amount of cultivated area is 109 534 ha.
Gotland accounts for 3,3 % of
Sweden’s total arable land. Among
the crops grown on Gotland, forage
crops are the largest and most
important, although cereals and
oilseed crops are also popular. Crops
for which Gotland has greatest
market share and is best known are
root vegetables such as potatoes,
onions and carrots plus other early
spring crops such as asparagus. 3.5%
of all potatoes in Sweden are grown
on Gotland. Today Gotlandic food
can be found everywhere in Sweden.
The primary market for Gotland’s
600 farms raise cattle in Gotland. Photo: Sara Almqvist food is the Mälardalen region. 600
farms raise cattle, of which 258 have
dairy herds. 57 keep pigs and 70 rear chickens. 395 farms rear a combined total of 65 034
sheep on Gotland. Lamb production is seeing most growth.
Organically grown crops are becoming increasingly prominent in all types of farming in
Gotland. There are 154 organic animal farms in the island. In 2010, Gotland accounted for
22.3% of the KRAV (certified organic) land for potato fields in Sweden (185 ha of a total
820 ha).
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