Over the past 15 years, the area of cultivated land per capita in Norway has decreased by around 20 percent. The area is gone, equivalent to around 100,000 football pitches.
15 years ago Norway gad around two acres cultivated land per capita . Today it’s almost down to 1.5 acres, the newspaper Nationen writes. The loss of topsoil is larger in the west, north and south of the country. Figures from Statistics Norway reveal that around 750,000 acres of cultivated land has been lost over the past 15 years, an area which also equates to over 100,000 football pitches.
Cities that grow and topsoil that go out of service in so-called marginal agricultural areas is the explanation for the decline, which are seldom slowed by cultivation.
– The decline is significant and has been happening for a long time. The result is that the self-sufficiency rate goes down if yields remain at the same level as before, says senior Jostein Vik at the research foundation Norwegian Centre for Rural Research in Trondheim.
– It is possible to slow the progression, but it requires targeted measures against those areas where the decline is largest, he said.
The amount of food made in Norway for Norwegians also have declined in recent years. 15 years ago 45 percent of the food consumed in Norway was produced in Norwegian agriculture. Now the figure is less than 40 percent, according to figures from the Health Directorate.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
