To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the proportion of registered holdings which are farmed by people other than the owner or tenant under (a) contract farming, (b) share farming and (c) other similar arrangements; and what estimate he has made of the equivalent figures (i) five and (ii) 10 years ago. (291915)

Recent research (published in 2007) into joint venture farming, including contract farming and share farming¹, indicates that a small minority (3 to 5 per cent.) of farmers in England are involved in a joint venture farming activity—although more informal arrangements are probably more common. The research suggests that share farming is carried out by 1 to 2 per cent. and contract farming by 3 to 4 per cent. of farms in England.

This research was based on the Farm Business Survey sample in England between 2002 and 2004. The farms represented in the survey account for 95 per cent. of national economic output from farming. No data are available for other similar arrangements, nor for earlier years.

¹ https://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/reports/jvf/ JVF_Research_Project-Final_Report.pdf