Government figures show a sharp and continuous fall-off in the number of farmers over the past five years that potentially threatens the landscape as its stewards leave the sector and are not replaced.
The number of workers in farming and forestry fell 19.8 percent over the five years, shrinking to 2.09 million this year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in a preliminary report Friday.
The decrease of 516,000 people from the 2010 level represents a roughly 60 percent decline in the farming and forestry population over 30 years from 1985, when the ministry began compiling data using the same definitions.