The Importance of Agricultural Land Used in the Production of Agricultural Products in Greece

Abstract In Greece, agriculture plays a key role in supporting the socio-economic sustainability of rural areas, as this sector is the main user of agricultural land. In Greece, agriculture covers a large part of its territory. It accounts for about 30% of the total area. The total cultivated agricultural land (arable crops, horticultural land, permanent crops) amounts to 3,221,680 hectares compared to the 171,603,000 hectares of the EU-27. In 2018 the main crop groups per year were distributed as follows: 53.4% of cultivated area (1,719,600 hectares) was used for arable crops, 1.9% (61,890 hectares) for horticultural, 33.7% (1,085,100 hectares) for permanent crops and 11.0% (354,760 hectares) of arable land was under set-aside. 56% of arable land is located in lowland areas, while the rest is in mountainous or semi-mountainous areas. An important parameter for crop efficiency is the irrigated agricultural area. One-third of the arable land is irrigated. The highest irrigation rates (97%) are occupied by horticultural crops, 43% by arable land, 38% by tree crops and 36% by viticulture. The average size of agricultural holdings is less than 5.0 hectares and the number of large farms has increased. Thus, 76.0% of rural households have a size of less than 5 hectares, while less than 1% have a size of more than 50 hectares. It is worth noting that agriculture must take care of soil protection, water quality, natural resources because these are vital factors in ensuring the sustainability of humanity. Keywords: Soil resources, Sustainable agriculture, Agricultural production.