Even if the agricultural employment stays more important in rural areas than anywhere else, the importance of agriculture in rural economies is variable. In some cases, the agriculture structures local industries which are determinant in term of employment, value added, environmental or cultural production. In other cases, it takes an important place, consumes a lot of natural resources, and contributes to European economical equilibrium, but influences less the local economy. These situations can also be combined and have to be analysed as compare to farm structures, land use or the importance of other activities.

 

• The map of farm structures reveals that European Union presents different types of situation. Eastern Europe (Eastern Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria) is characterised by the great number and the relative poverty of its exploitations. Mediterranean Europe (Portugal, southern Spain, Italy and Greece) is described simultaneously by the importance of the number of its farms and its production. North-Western Europe (Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and France) presents a low number of farms, which production has an important value added.
• These maps emphasize the need of a geographical approach for supporting production or farmers.