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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

USE OF AGRICULTURAL LAND CATEGORIES IN EU COUNTRIES

KRISTINA KABOURKOVÁ,

MAREK VOCHOZKA,

JAROSLAV STUCHLÝ

Institute of Technology and Business, School of Expertness and

Valuation, Okruzni 517/10, 37001 Ceske Budejovice, Czech
Republic

email:

Institute of Technology and Business, Faculty of Corporate

Strategy, Okruzni 517/10, 37001 Ceske Budejovice, Czech
Republic

kabourkova@mail.vstecb.cz,

vochozka@mail.vstecb.cz,

stuchly@mail.vstecb.cz

Abstract: In the introductory part, the authors deal with the importance of agricultural
lands, its effect on water management, use of land in agriculture, the influence on the
climatic conditions and the whole Earth´s ecosystem, examining the system from the
perspective of Czech accounting and IFRS. In the working part, the authors focus on
the comparison of the state of used agricultural land in thousands of ha in the EU
countries by individual categories using historical statistical data from Eurostat on the
quantity and structure of used agricultural land. The authors present relevant time
series in tables and graphs; the comparison of categories of land in individual EU
countries was presented in the form of graph. There was made a comparison of
individual EU countries by the size of used agricultural land per one inhabitant. In the
conclusion part, trend function calculated for all EU countries is used to make
prediction for individual categories of agricultural land for the year 2020.

Keywords: agricultural land, EU countries, categories of land, arable land, grassland,
permanent grassland, prediction.

1 Introduction

The total area of the agricultural land fund in the CR as of 31
December 2017 was 4,205,288 ha, which accounts for 53.32%
of the overall area of the land fund of the CR. To this date, the
area of arable land was 2,958,603 ha (37.5% of the overall area
of the land fund), in the case of hop gardens, it was 10,066 ha,
20,008 ha for vineyards, 164,815 ha for gardens, 45,245 ha for
orchards, and 1,006,552 ha for permanent grassland (meadows,
pastures). The area of forestry land was 2,671,659 ha (33.9% of
the overall area of the land fund), water bodies 166,253 ha,
build-up areas and courtyards 132,333 ha. Other areas occupied
711,464 ha; however, the amount of the land used for
agricultural purposes is smaller.

Act No 334/1992 Sb. (Czech Republic, 1992a) on the Protection
of Agricultural Land Fund governs the protection of the land in
the Czech Republic, stipulating that the agricultural land fund
involves the fundamental natural heritage of our country,
irreplaceable means for production and one of the essential
components of the environment. It comprises cultivated lands
(arable land, hop-fields, vineyards, fruit orchards, gardens,
meadows and pastures) and temporarily barren land, fish or
waterfowl breeding ponds, barren land necessary for agricultural
production (dirt roads) irrigation water tanks, anti-erosion
terraces etc. The Act governs that the non-agricultural purposes
should primarily use barren land (building gap sites etc.)
(Slábová, 2006). Unfortunately, today’s practices incline to
break this law, leading to building public and private structures
mostly on the agricultural land. Most parts of the total area do
not enjoy adequate cultivation regarding the size of the
individual fields, not providing separation by ever-green baulks
that would form vital bio corridors for ecological stability.

Devising large-area systems resulted in mutually unconnected
small-sized woods. The technology of up-to-date agriculture is
not eco-friendly and poses a high risk of damaging the
environment (Gremlica et al., 2002).

The agricultural land mostly involves arable land (fields),
meadows and pastures, fruit orchards, vineyards and hop fields.
Arable land refers to an area for growing crops. The article aims
at analysing the current structure of used agricultural land in the
EU countries by comparing historical data and revealing the
necessity for a continuous change in the system and composition
of the land. The Eurostat data will also determine linear trend
functions for individual EU countries and all basic categories of

cultivated land to predict values of respective time series for the
year 2020.

2 Literature research and used data and methods

Soil is the outermost layer of the Earth’s crust, consisting of
water, air, regolith, organic matter and living organisms. It
originates from the transformation of inorganic and organic
substances, serving as a natural habitat of fauna and flora, and
ceases to exist by erosion. Soil evolves very slowly; one-
centimetre Earth’s crust can form up to hundreds of years.
Humanity has always depended on cultivating soil as it has been
a source of food and various non-productive and ecosystem
functions.

Soil enables plant growth, retains and uses water, contributes to
the hydro-thermal balance of the atmosphere, regulates gas
exchange between land and atmosphere, allows nutrient and
substance exchange, contributes to the environment, covers the
Earth and provides the place for building.

Although the global population may use roughly 87 million km2
of land, the human factor has irreversibly damaged its substantial
part, which led to its degradation. Urban areas have the most
profound influence on the evolution of soil and its quality. The
soil decline and destruction mean a big problem for humanity,
unfortunately leaving politicians and other important persons
unconcerned.

People often have no other but to harm the nature from,
sometimes allegedly, economic necessity. As an example may
serve a situation when poor peasants in Brasil have been burning
down tropical rainforest to raise soya and breed livestock. It is,
unfortunately, the general philosophy of today’s consumer
society (CSO, 2018).

The truth is that a human being substantially contributes to the
soil degradation, removing natural vegetation (mostly for
building reasons), mining, dumping or harmfully cultivating
(monocultures, excessive spraying, lack of organic matter, using
heavy mechanisms etc.). These bad practices have penetrated on
a global scale – developing and developed countries. As
humanity has dismally failed to use the land carefully and
efficiently, the soil is subject to bit-by-bit degradation and
prevented from expanding, leading to mortal danger of the
human species (Šimek et al., 2019).

What poses the essential global issue is soil desertification
(transforming fertile land into the barren desert), disintegrating
social systems and causing migration from the affected territory.
In 1992, the OSN introduced the Convention to Combat
Desertification to the countries stricken by severe drought or
desertification. The treaty aims to provide humanitarian aid in
afflicted territories – mostly in Africa. The Convention came to
force in 1996; the CZ ratified the agreement in 2000 (Slábová,
2006).

Yet, we need to say that large international organizations have
not seriously dealt with the issue of soil degradation, which is
the biggest threat to this essential constituent of the environment.
No sooner than in 2015 did the OSN summon the General
Meeting to tackle this problem, assessing the Earth’s crust
condition. Document Status of the World’s Soil Resources
employed about 200 scientists from 60 countries, including the
Czech Republic. The analysis considers erosion and expanding
built-up areas in Europe as the fastest growing menace
(Protection of the Nature, 2020).

Europe is a continent that strongly depends on the land outside
its territory. The land area of the EU is about 640 million
hectares per year, i.e. 1.5 times more than the overall size of all
member countries. The Czech Republic uses another 18,500 km2
outside its borders, i.e. roughly 44% of its agricultural land, not

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