Farm managers are those responsible for the normal daily financial and production routines of running a farm. As such, they can be thought of as farmers; they make the decisions on what to plant or how many livestock to rear, just as much as when to buy materials and sell stock. Only one person per farm can be identified as a farm manager. Often the farm manager is also the owner of the farm but this need not be the case especially when the farm has a legal form.
In 2016, seven in every ten (72 %) farm managers on the 10.5 million holdings in the European Union (EU) were male.
The EU countries with the highest proportions of female farm managers in 2016 were Latvia and Lithuania (both 45 %), followed by Romania (34 %) and Estonia (33 %). In contrast, there were four Member States where the proportion of farm managers who were female was at or below 10 %: The Netherlands (5 %), Malta (6 %), Denmark (8 %) and Germany (10 %).
In terms of age, the majority (58 %) of farm managers were aged 55 years or more. Only about one in every ten (11 %) farm managers was under the age of 40 years and this share was even lower among female farmers (9 %).
The data source is here.
For more information, take a look at the 2018 edition of Agriculture, forestry and fishery statistics, available here.
To contact us: estat-user-support@ec.europa.eu