Metadata: Agricultural and horticultural farms
Source
Statbel, Certisys, TÜV Nord Integra and Inscert Partner, processed by Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
Definitions
Number of agricultural and horticultural farms: the number of farms producing agricultural and/or horticultural products for sale. The area of a farm is allocated to the municipality where the head office of the farm is located.
Standard yield: the monetary value of gross agricultural production per unit at farm-gate prices excluding VAT. Subsidies are not taken into account. Specific costs (seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, fodder, energy, etc.) are not deducted either.
Livestock unit (LU): a conversion factor to represent and compare farm animals in a uniform way. The number of LU is determined by converting the number of animals by the following coefficients: cattle under 1 year old: 0.4; cattle of 1 year old and under 2 years old: 0.6; male cattle 2 years old and over: 1; heifers 2 years old and over: 0.5; dairy cows: 1; suckler cows and reformed cows: 0.8; sheep and goats: 0.1; piglets of less than 20 kg: 0.027; sows: 0.5; other pigs: 0.3; broiler chickens: 0.007; laying hens, poults and breeding cocks: 0.014; other poultry: 0.03 and equidae: 0.6.
Farms in convertion: in order to turn a conventional farm into an organic farm, the farmer has to ‘convert’. If the farmer follows the organic rules and the control organisation issues him a certificate, the farmer is certified ‘in conversion to organic’ after one year. After two years (for annual crops such as vegetables) or three years (for perennial crops such as pit fruit) the farmer receives the official organic certificate from the control organisation and is allowed to sell his product as organic.
Remarks on quality
None
References
Department of Agriculture and Fisheries: Agricultural figures(opens in new window)
Statbel: Agricultural and horticultural farms(opens in new window)