Photo: BMLFUW/Rita Newman
Land of mountains – mountain farmers in Austria
Austria as a mountain country is an example which shows how agriculture can be successful even in agriculturally less favoured areas.
All in all Austria has a surface area of 83,585 km² and has, compared to its size, the largest mountain area in Europe. Austria has a share in the East Alps which cover almost two thirds of the national territory. But also extra-Alpine regions such as the Mühlviertel ( mill quarter) or the Waldviertel (forest quarter) in the North of Austria are located at a higher altitude and mountainous.Which agricultural and forestry enterprises are mountain farms?
Mountain farms which reach Mountain Farm Cadastre (MFC) points are designated as “mountain farms”. As far as the regional distribution is concerned mountain farms are predominantly located in the High Alps, in the foothills of the Alps, and at the Eastern rim of the Alps, as well as in the extra-Alpine regions of the Waldviertel and the Mühlviertel.
What is the Mountain Farm Cadastre?
The Mountain Farm Cadastre (MFC) constitutes the basis for the financial compensation for the handicaps of management in mountainous areas. It is an aerial photograph map, which was worked out by means of distortion-corrected aerial photographs, the orthophotos, from photo flights on the basis of the digitalised cadastral map.
The point system of the mountain farm cadastre is based on the internal transport situation (slope gradient, traditional nomadic pastoralism (Alpine pasturage, …), the external transport situation (reachability of the location of the holding by passenger car or tractor, distance of the location of the holding to the next bus stop, railway station, district administrative authority, road maintenance, cableway maintenance, extreme conditions, and regional location of the holding), as well as on climate and soil (climate value and sea altitude of the location of the holding, productivity index).
The total sum of the points of the individual criteria makes up the number of MFC points of the farm. The amount of the compensatory allowance (CA) depends, among other things, on the number of MFC points of the farm.
There are four Mountain Farm Cadastre Categories:
· MFC Category 1: up to 90 MFC points
· MFC Category 2: more than 90 but less than 180 MFC points
· MFC Category 3: more than 180 but less than 270 MFC points
· MFC Category 4: more than 270 MFC points and up to 570 MFC points
How many mountain farmers are there in Austria?
The about 71,000 mountain farms represented in 2006 approximately 37.5 of all Austrian agricultural and forestry enterprises (all in all about 189,600).
They cultivated about 960.000 hectares of utilized agricultural area (without Alpine pastures), about 263,000 of them were arable land. Thus mountain farmers owned approximately 40.4 percent of the utilized agricultural area (without Alpine pastures and mountain meadows). In addition to that 481,000 hectares of Alpine pastures were managed in the form of extensive grassland farming.
The average agricultural area of a mountain farm amounts only to 13.5 hectares and is thus particularly small also in comparison to other European states.
As to the economic performance of the mountain farms: About 33,000 of these mountain farms produce milk, which corresponds to 70 percent of the yields from dairy farming. They produced 60 percent of the yields from livestock farming and 72 percent of the yields from forestry. The yields from soil utilization (9 percent) and pig keeping (8 percent) were only of minor importance.
Organic farming plays an important role for mountain farms. 15.000 of these mountain farms are organic farms.
As to mountain farms, the incomes from agriculture and forestry exceeded the level of the previous year by 12 % and totalled € 21,500 in 2006. The compensatory allowance contributed considerably to the incomes, in particular for mountain farms with high or extreme handicap.
Subsidisation of mountain farmers in future – Rural development 2007-2013
At the end of October 2007 the European Commission approved the Austrian Rural Development Programme 2007-2013. This programme is also called the “Green Pact”. In priority 2 “Improvement of the environment and the landscape” the compensatory allowance (mountain farmers’ programme) and the Agri-Environmental Programme (ÖPUL) constitute the most important subsidisation programmes. In the programme years 2007-2013 subsidies to the amount of 5.662 billion euros will be granted.
The application will take place via the multiple application form. The amount of the compensatory allowance (CA) will depend also in future on the kind and the extent of the area eligible for compensatory allowance (the level of subsidisation for forage areas is higher than that for areas eligible for compensatory allowance), on the number of mountain farm cadastre points as a measure for the evaluation of the handicap, and on the type of holding.
Also non-mountain farmers (holdings without MFC points) who cultivate areas eligible for compensatory allowance will receive a compensatory allowance, however, to a lower extent than mountain farms. They are found in “other less-favoured areas” or “small-scaled areas” which are characterised by a low crop yield and other permanent specific disadvantages.
Paid mountain farmers’ subsidies “compensatory allowance 2006”
In the year 2006 the EU compensatory allowances were paid to about 102,000 farms of the total less-favoured areas (mountain areas, other less-favoured areas, small-scaled areas). The amount paid was a little bit more than 275 million euros.
The compensation for disadvantages and handicaps, which, in many cases, make the running of remote farms possible, continues to be an important task of agricultural policy. For this subsidisation instrument is a contribution to the maintenance of settlement and soil management also under unfavourable site conditions. The services provided for the public interest in this field are also acknowledged in this way by the compensatory allowance.
Alpine pasturage – traditional form of farming in Austria’s Alps
Alpine pastures (481,000 ha) and mountain meadows (5,000 ha), which are predominantly situated in the Federal Provinces of Vorarlberg, Tyrol, Carinthia and Salzburg, make up about 17 percent of the utilized agricultural area.
Alpine pastures are grassland areas, which are due to their high altitude and the resulting climatic conditions run as stocked pastures. Mountain meadows are grassland areas above the permanent settlement threshold, which are not mown more than once a year.
With more than 9,000 Alpine pastures, managed by 71,000 Alpine farmers Austria ranks by far on top of all EU countries. In 2006 about 426,500 head of livestock were driven to Alpine pastures. These animals were predominantly cattle and suckler cows, dairy cows and sheep, to a lower extent only horses and goats. A species-appropriate animal husbandry is promoted in this way.
Austria’s Alpine pastures are important for species diversity and biodiversity, but also important production areas for food. Only by means of the management of the century-old farm-based cultivated landscape of Alpine pastures the continuation will be secured. After the abandonment of pasturage Alpine pastures lose only within a few years their value in terms of Alpine pasture management. Abandoned Alpine pastures can only be regenerated with great expenditure of time and money and it takes a long period to reach such regeneration.
In Austria tourism places a clear emphasis on the Alpine area and profits from the scenic Alpine pastures. They constitute points of attraction for winter sports and Alpine and hiking tourism.
22.02.2008, Lebensministerium Öffentlichkeitsarbeit