cultivar_22_Final_EN

1. Background Agricultural and forestry activities occupy a large part of the Portuguese territory, and consequently the dynamics of land use resulting from these activ- ities have a decisive impact on the sustainability of territorial management. The agricultural production fabric is undergoing a continuous and lengthy process of change as a result of a wide range of factors both internal and external, such as the economic development of the various territories and public policies regarding production, multifunctionality, extensification, environmental conservation, small farmers or high nature value sys- tems. This article aims to analyse how agricultural activity in Portugal has used land, a very important resource, as well as the main dynamics of its use, by looking at the main structural characteristics of farm holdings and trying to highlight some of the factors that most influenced that change. * Editor’s note: Update of the article originally published in CULTIVAR issue 2 – Soil, November 2015, p.63 as “Dinâmicas da utilização do solo pela agricultura”. https://www.gpp.pt/images/GPP/O_que_disponibilizamos/Publicacoes/CULTIVAR_2/E_book/CULTIVAR_2_O_SOLO/64/ 1 Data collection field operations for the 2019AC took place between October 2019 and May 2020. https://ra2019.ine.pt/xportal/xmain?xpgid=ra2019_main&xpid=RA2019&xlang=en The analysis is based on some statistical sources, namely structural information from the Agricultural Censuses (AC), in particular the 2019AC just published by Statistics Portugal (INE) on 31 March 2021. 1 The cen- suses enable the observation of the land ownership structure, production systems and agricultural labour and population, allowing for examining comparative changes in these variables and assessing long-term structural trends. 2. Summary Land is the physical support of the territory where a large number of activities take place. These activities are extremely diverse in nature, whether economic, social, environmental or other. As in most countries, particularly in Europe, much of the Portuguese territory is occupied by agriculture and forestry, and these activities and their dynamics are very important for good land management. The results of the 2019 Agricultural Census (2019AC) show the continuation of a process of restructuring 73 Dynamics of agricultural land use in Portugal* Rui Pereira Office of Planning, Policy and General Administration (GPP)