cultivar_22_Final_EN

82 ANALYSIS AND PROSPECTIVE STUDIES CULTIVAR Issue 22 APRIL 2021 On the other hand, in some regions labour produc- tivity levels in agriculture are low when compared with the average of the economy as a whole, which results in very little capacity to ensure comparable incomes. This is yet another factor to make succes- sion processes difficult for these small farmers. Fig- ure 15, which compares labour productivity in the primary sector and in the whole economy, shows that the regions with the greatest differences in labour productivity between Agriculture, Forestry and Hunting and the whole economy average suf- fered the greatest impacts in terms of loss of UAA and number of holdings. In Beira Litoral, the produc- tivity of the whole economy is 5.3 times that of Agri- culture, Forestry and Hunting, revealing the compet- itive difficulty between the sector and other sectors in attracting labour and investment to these areas. As mentioned above, this set of factors has pro- moted a significant restructuring in the Portuguese agricultural production fabric, with both the disap- pearance of a large number of farms over time, and the subsequent difficulty in continuing to use their land, and the readjustment in the remaining farms, as well as the new investments made by the new farm holdings meantime created. 3. Conclusions The economic and technological development of the territories and the public policies that accompany it lead, in general, to a reallocation of resources that implies a decrease in the relative importance of agri- cultural activity, more marked in terms of economic variables (such as output and employment) than physical variables (such as land cover). Intrasectoral competition, more intense when Portuguese agricul- ture is integrated into increasingly larger economic areas, has elements that lead to the concentration of land ownership. These are long-term dynamics, common to both developed and developing countries, which have also occurred in Portugal. However, these trends were regionally diversified, depending on the type of land and the historical structure of land ownership. Where there was a land ownership structure with parcels large enough to support an extensification process, the poor- est soils were integrated into the UAA for grazing. Between 1989 and 2019, in the Alentejo, there was a 16.4% increase in the Utilised Agricultural Area. In Beira Litoral there was a 44% fall in the UAA, while Entre Douro e Minho and the Algarve fell by almost 26%. Where parcels of a certain size coexist with access to land, entre- preneurial and financial capacity, and availability of water for irriga- tion, farms with high production potential emerge, with modern and technologically differentiated production sys- tems, where irrigation is more effective, but which are subject to social pressure regarding their envi- ronmental performance. Where the land structure of the holding does not include parcels large enough to support extensifi- cation or modernisation processes, coupled with the producers’ difficulty in organising themselves in order to concentrate supply, leading to a lower ability to generate an acceptable income, and thus not guaranteeing the conditions to ensure an appro- priate generational succession, these farm holdings FTE – Full-time equivalent Source : Regional Economic Accounts for Agriculture Figure 15 − Labour productivity in Agriculture, Forestry and Hunting vs. the whole economy by Agricultural Region (average 2000-2001-2002) EDM TM BL BI RO ALT ALG Gráfico 10 - Comparação da produtividade do trabalho da agricultura, silvicultura e caça com a produtividade do total da economia por Região (média 2000-2001-2002) ( Fonte:ContasRegionais) 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 EDM TM BL BI RO ALT ALG €/FTE Agricultural Regions Labour productivity in the Economy (GVA/Employed pop. FTE) Labour productivity in Agriculture, Forestry and Hunting (GVA/Employed pop. FTE)