Agricultural land? Permanent grassland? Agricultural land or used agricultural area? Agriculture has a number of complicated terms, what is all that actually? We'll explain the most important aspects to you.
The agricultural area (LN) is the the entirety of all arable land, meadows and willows of a farm. In addition, meadows and fruit growing areas and specialized crops like wine or nurseries. The utilised agricultural area (LF) - as an agricultural unit of measurement from statistics and administration - on the other hand, includes permanent cultivated areas, permanent pastures and arable land. The latter also include vegetable gardens, temporary pastures and areas that are temporarily fallow. Fallows are vacant plots of land that are not used to produce agricultural products. They can be left to themselves or greened. Land that has been fallow for a limited period of time is also arable land. Permanent cultivated land is land that is cultivated over several years but is not replanted every year, such as coffee or rubber as well as fruit and nut trees and viticulture. Since the agricultural area also includes courtyard areas and buildings, it is larger than the area used for agriculture.
Farms manage agricultural areas on a permanent and planned basis to produce animal or plant products. There is no minimum size to consider whether there is an intention to make a profit. Only then it is a agricultural holding. Government funding is also irrelevant to the definition. A garden that is part of a house does not represent an area used for agriculture, but is part of the settlement area. On the other hand, the situation is different with entire plots of land that are used as gardens. In other words, allotment gardens. Gardens that are located outside villages are also included in the agricultural area.
In 2024, 28 percent of the utilised agricultural area was used as permanent grassland, half of which are pastures and meadows. This means that they are managed as part of milk and meat production. Since the 1990s, the area has declined, although it has increased again since 2014, the 1990 levels have not been reached again.
More than half of utilised agricultural area or three quarters are used for the animal feed and biomass production — only a quarter is accounted for on the plant-based diet from people. The main part consists of grains that are planted to produce grains, such as wheat and rye. This is followed by commercial plants such as rapeseed or sunflowers — which are traded to be processed into oil. This is followed by root crops such as potatoes or sugar beets and finally legumes such as peas. The main production branch in Germany, is the meat production, for which plants are also grown as animal feed. Therefore, grain maize is also one of the main cereals that are grown.
If a green area has been not farmed for 5 years or more, it is accounted for permanent grassland. That means it hasn't been part of the crop rotation and has also not been ploughed anymore. The lawn is either sown or grows by self-seeding. It is either mowed for fodder production or grazed by grazing animals. Permanent grassland includes orchards, wet grassland and mowing meadows as well as meadows for feed and biomass production.
permanent grassland is becoming less in Germany. It has a number of advantages, for example, the lawn grows by itself and contributes significantly to biodiversity. Permanent grassland areas are endangered because many areas for living space and streets is broken over as well as for biomass and in order to grow agricultural land feed. In addition, permanent grassland binds carbon dioxide, which comes off when the soil is plowed. Accordingly, permanent grassland is very important for the climate. Permanent grassland stores the most CO2, namely 181 tons per hectare, 100 tons for forest soils and 95 tons for arable land. In contrast to arable land, they offer a good erosion protection through the permanent vegetation. The soils have large storage capacities for rainwater. This allows the water to seep easily even during heavy rain. Since this is increasing due to climate change, it is very important to preserve grassland, which also sets the standard for good agricultural ecological status (GLÖZ). permanent grassland and the maintenance are— just like wastelands — financially supported to recognize their environmental benefits. They are part of the CAP's direct payments. The upheaval of permanent grassland areas is also restricted since 2015. Since this has been regulated since 2023 in the conditionality, maintenance is a decisive condition for continuing to receive direct payments.
This conversion is prohibited in some German federal states and only exceptions are allowed. In addition, the municipality must agree with it. Through the EU greening requirements from 2015 the breakdown should be prevented. If areas are converted into grassland, for example by planting lean limestone grasslands, less carbon dioxide is absorbed than if grassland areas are maintained. The buffer ensures that few nutrients seep into the groundwater, as well as valuable layers of humus.
The land use plan determines which surfaces in a region or the municipality may be used in any way. The development plan states whether PV systems may be installed. One advantage of such systems is that they can also graze sheep, for example. They provide shade, which prevents dehydration when it gets too hot and sunny in summer. They also help against erosion caused by too much wind exposure. However, in the case of such additional use of an area, PV can only be built on 15 percent of the area.
Non-farmers have a hard time to buy agricultural land. The reason for this is that, in the event of a sale, a fragmentation of agricultural and forestry land could be the consequence that you would like to prevent.
For the use of agricultural land, there are a few rules to follow, for example, maintenance that should secure the areas and serves the sustainability. This results in the difficulty of selling and acquiring for non-farmers.
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