Agriculture in Belarus

Agriculture is an important sector of the Belarusian economy. In 2023, it employed 6.9% of the workforce, generated 7.2% of GDP. In 2020, it was responsible for 19.9% of exports.

It is mostly conducted by large-scale agricultural organizations that are heavily subsidized by the state, with minimal input from individual farmers. It can be divided into two segments: livestock and crops, which generate roughly equal production.

The main produce of Belarusian agriculture are milk, sugar beet, potatoes, wheat, barley, and rapeseed. Its main agricultural exports are rapeseed, beef, poultry and milk.

History Belarus has been characterized by some as a slow land reformer compared to other CIS countries.C. Csaki and H. Kray, The Agrarian Economies of Central-Eastern Europe and the CIS: An Update on Status and Progress in 2004, World Bank, ECSSD Working Paper No. 40, June 2005.

There have been no major shifts in the number of animals between collective and family farms since independence in 1995: the family farm sector (mainly household plots) controlled 11%–16% of the total cattle herd and 30%–40% of the number of pigs between 1980 and 2005. Poultry, on the other hand, has become concentrated to a greater extent in collective farms, with the share of family farms dropping from more than 40% in the 1980s to less than 30% since 1995.Official Statistics of the Countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, CD-ROM 2006-11, Interstate Statistical Committee of the CIS, Moscow, 2006.

The share of agriculture in GDP declined from 11.6% in 2000 to 7.4% in 2007,Sectoral structure of GDP 2000-2007 , BelStat. while the share of agriculture in total employment dropped from 14.1% to 9.9% over the same period.Employment by sector 2000-2007 , BelStat. The decrease in agricultural employment is a long-term trend and back in the early 1990s agriculture's share was as high as 19% of the number of employed.Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Belarus 2004, BelStat, Minsk, 2004 The decrease of agricultural labor parallels the general urbanization trends, as the share of rural population in Belarus steadily declines over time.

Historical statistics Crops + Sown area in thousand hectares, by year 1913 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 Potatoes 583 670 929 746 875 981 1,028 1,003 956 879 787 708 638 725 661 467 371 507 Vegetables 42 60 62 50 42 43 50 48 48 48 54 47 41 77 98 89 86 66 Sugar beet 2 5 19 29 59 49 52 52 59 46 55 52 100 97 103 Forage crops 159 298 433 119 302 778 1,675 1,738 2,224 2,342 2,038 2,404 2,554 2,451 2,602 2,289 2,066 2,663 Rye 2,007 1,093 1,284 1,250 1,540 1,454 1,435 1,715 858 808 1,074 1,015 917 969 723 537 352 252 Wheat 86 204 262 149 239 364 162 187 442 196 209 195 140 177 452 361 611 737 Triticale 38 99 363 444 512 Barley 357 298 377 469 348 294 249 398 717 1,134 1,218 918 1,030 1,033 736 615 691 507 Oats 869 551 794 606 654 574 400 195 277 290 391 380 360 337 285 232 184 154 Buckwheat 194 133 245 176 294 356 131 96 41 29 44 38 18 18 22 8 31 14 Legumes 91 123 167 139 273 222 206 290 169 146 203 270 172 119 198 154 138 160 Total 4,542 3,837 5,212 3,845 4,913 5,453 5,664 6,034 6,047 6,174 6,308 6,241 6,126 6,150 6,155 5,473 4,933 5,314 + Gross harvest, thousand tonnes 1913 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 Potatoes 4,024 11,879 5,429 9,537 8,729 10,641 12,116 13,234 12,736 9,333 10,553 8,590 9,504 8,718 8,185 7,831 5,995 Vegetables 673 452 483 522 843 820 855 711 733 828 749 1,031 1,379 2,007 2,335 1,686 Sugar beet 17 69 81 383 856 1,030 1,135 1,122 1,568 1,479 1,172 1,474 3,065 3,773 3,300 Rye 1,362 1,369 812 1,403 860 1,200 1,839 1,074 1,509 1,515 1,848 2,652 2,143 1,360 1,155 735 753 Wheat 72 191 86 163 188 137 236 708 397 302 401 381 439 966 1,175 1,739 2,896 Triticale 113 311 1,121 1,254 1,929 Barley 285 333 281 281 137 263 524 1,358 2,048 1,693 2,378 2,908 1,965 1,378 1,864 1,966 1,849 Oats 703 576 376 476 266 330 232 470 410 493 786 806 638 495 609 442 492 Buckwheat 66 145 73 146 119 40 42 20 4 16 13 11 14 18 7 18 12 Legumes 60 70 57 188 70 120 262 173 126 90 363 252 187 291 331 262 470

Livestock + Number of livestock at the end of the year, thousand 1940 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 Total cattle 2,844 3,666 4,704 5,383 6,406 6,768 7,535 6,975 5,054 4,221 3,980 4,151 4,364 Cows 1,956 2,021 2,331 2,490 2,680 2,738 2,683 2,362 2,137 1,845 1,565 1,445 1,533 Pigs 2,520 3,164 3,688 4,005 3,999 4,567 5,014 5,051 3,895 3,431 3,545 3,782 2,925 Sheep 2,539 1,151 789 663 541 546 629 403 204 89 53 52 73 Goats 39 62 57 29 24 24 31 42 58 65 68 75 68 Horses 1,170 519 389 329 271 231 229 217 229 217 168 125 73

+ Output of basic livestock products 1940 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 Sales for slaughter, live weight, thsd. tonnes 424 614 751 999 1,259 1,267 1,534 1,758 995 854 1,024 1,400 1,661 Sales for slaughter, slaughter weight, thsd. tonnes 275 402 508 685 842 857 1,032 1,181 657 598 697 971 1,149 Milk, thsd. tonnes 2,005 3,219 4,125 5,264 6,109 6,105 6,759 7,457 5,070 4,490 5,676 6,624 7,047 Eggs, million 612 868 1,106 1,669 2,631 3,035 3,363 3,657 3,373 3,288 3,103 3,536 3,746 Wool, tonnes 3,285 2,120 1,396 1,222 1,040 1,122 1,223 958 396 184 92 84 131

Organizational structure There are three types of entities in Belarus involved in agricultural activities: household plots, which are relatively small pieces of land attached to private households; private farms, which are small business entities engaged in agricultural production; and large-scale agricultural organizations. Agricultural land in Belarus is state-owned and can only be rented.

,1,485 agricultural organizations were in operation. These organizations controlled 89.8% of agricultural land and generated 78.2% of all agricultural output. Roughly a third of them were privately owned, 40% had shared ownership with the government, and the remainder were under government control.

There were 3,822 private farms, which controlled 4.0% of the land and generated 2.9% of the output. On average, each private farm had three workers. They have better financial outcomes than agricultural organizations, showing a profitability of 20.8% compared to an overall average of 6.4%. Household plots controlled 5.0% of the land and were responsible for 18.9% of the output, including 37.7% of the total crop output.

In terms of regional distribution, 26.2% of the value was produced in the Minsk region, while 40.7% came from the Western regions of Brest and Grodno, where the soil is, on average, more fertile.

Government support Every five years since 1995, Belarus has launched programs to boost its agricultural sector, with the goal of ensuring food security and generating export revenue. In 2008, Belarus's Vice Prime Minister claimed that Belarusian agriculture was 60% subsidized, compared to 15-30% globally. In 2011, Alexander Lukashenko stated that the amount of subsidies to the sector in the 2000s totaled $40 billion and that they should be lowered. By the mid-2010s, subsidies amounted to 20-30% of agricultural output, a figure consistent with EU levels.

These subsidies are provided through limited taxation (effectively around 1%), cheap loans with negative real interest rates, regular debt forgiveness, free insurance, and lower costs for fuel, machinery, electricity, and other goods and services. During the 2000s, subsidies accounted for 7-9% of the government budget or 3-5% of GDP.

Production

, 5,756 thousand hectares were used for crops. In the same year, agriculture generated 7.2% of GDP, employed 6.9% of workers, and accounted for up to a fifth of exports in 2020. Belarus achieved self-sufficiency in everything except fruits, for which consumption is a third higher than production.

Crops constituted 46.6% of agricultural output, of which 16.1% were vegetables and 9.8% were cereals, while livestock production was 53.4%, with milk accounting for 32.5% of it. By volume, 1.4 million cows produce roughly 7.8 million tonnes of milk, and products derived from it generated $263 million in exports.

+ Production in 2023 Crop Production, thousand tonnes Share of area sown, % Export value, million $ Sugar beet 4,844 1.8 0 Potatoes 4,021 2.8 36.4 Eggs 3,438 colspan=1 4.4 Wheat 2,400 12.7 0.4 Triticale 1,317 5.7 0 Barley 1,150 7.6 0.9 Maize 1,000 0 Rapeseed 900 6.9 543.8 Rye 780 4.0 0.5 Poultry 480 colspan=1 264.0 Pork 375 colspan=1 38.1 Beef 375 colspan=1 435.1 Cabbages 365 0 Oats 350 2.3 0.3 Apples 337 colspan=1 27 Tomatoes 336 0.5 Carrots 327 2.0

, Belarus was the 3rd largest producer of flax, the 4th largest of vetches in the world, the 4th largest of triticale, the 4th largest of rye, the 8th largest of cranberries, the 10th largest of buckwheat, the 11th largest of sour cherries, the 11th largest of lupins, the 14th largest of sugar beet, and the 21st largest producer of potatoes.

Agriculture in Belarus

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