ROME, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The number of farms in Italy diminished by nearly a third in the decade ending in 2020, the Italian government's statistics office (ISTAT) reported Tuesday. However, farms grew dramatically in size and efficiency over the same time span.
ISTAT on Tuesday released the sectoral and regional breakdowns from its seventh general census of agriculture, a survey of more than 1.7 million Italian farms and agricultural concerns of all types and sizes.
The report compares data from 2020 and 2010, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Italian agricultural sector.
According to ISTAT, Italy had a total of 1.06 million commercial farms in 2020, compared to 1.56 million a decade earlier -- a decrease of 32 percent.
However, the number of large farms (properties with at least 30 hectares) grew.
Efficiency in terms of agricultural output per unit of land also increased by a least a tenth in most agricultural sectors, with some sectors growing by half or more over the 2010 to 2020 period.
ISTAT's report came amid dramatic new challenges for the agricultural sector this year, including surging fuel prices largely sparked by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Italy is also dealing with particularly hot and dry weather, which according to agricultural confederation Coldiretti will reduce the country's agricultural output in some areas by as much as 45 percent this year. ■