A FLATLAND AREA of Cumbrian countryside in England’s Lake District has come on the market. It’s the largest single ring-fenced block of productive farmland the land agent has brought to the market for many years.
It’s only 116 hectares but it’s causing great excitement. While the agency mentions agriculture, the potential for solar generation and storage is the lead marketing push. For $NZ3.7 million you get some gorgeous dry-stone walls.
A study into farm sizes by the New University of Colorado Boulder has shown that globally, farm sizes are getting bigger. Small farms are being swallowed up. The researchers predict the number of farms globally will probably decline from the current 616 million in 2020 to 272 million by 2100. The average farm size is likely to double.
Smaller farms typically have more biodiversity and crop diversity. And while the world’s smallest farms might only take up 25% of the world’s agricultural land, they harvest one-third of the world’s food.
