Baseline information on agricultural practices in the EU ... - Europabio

- In France a stable area of about 25,000 ha of sweet maize is grown, mostly in Aquitaine
(Maizeurop). Hungary is the leading country in the EU with over 30,000 hectares in 2006.
- A number of countries in northern Europe use a proportion of the crop for biogas production:
260,000 hectares in Germany, 20,000 hectares in Austria and 10,500 hectares in Poland
(Maiz’info, Oct-Nov 2009 2 ). The German Maiskomitee communicates on areas between
240,000 and 375,000 hectares for 2009. In 2010 energy maize was grown on an area of
about 530 000 hectares according to the German Federal Minister of Agriculture (BMELV).
The Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe States that in 2010 500,000 hectares were used
for biogas production, which is equal to 22% of the total maize area in Germany.
3.2 Cultivation area
A comparison of the surface of grain and silage maize in the EU Member States is provided in Figure
2 and Table 2. The cropping area within the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) reached
8.3 million hectares in 2007 for grain maize and 5.0 million hectares for silage maize. The annual total
yield was 48.5 million tonnes of grain (Eurostat).
Figure 2: Area for grain and silage maize production, average of 2004-2008 (from Czarnak-Kłos &
Rodríguez-Cerezo, 2010)
The largest maize producers are France, Romania, Germany, Hungary and Italy, where maize is
grown on more than 1 million hectares each. Even within a Member State, important regional
differences may exist in relation to cultivation of maize (Figure 3).
There are indications that the areal of maize cultivation is gradually expanding to the North (Eurostat).
The data in Table 2 illustrate that the area of maize cultivation has increased over the last decade in
the northern countries, while at the same time acreages in southern Europe tend to stabilise or even
decrease. Mainly due to the development of varieties better adapted to the northern regions (early
maturing types) and the warmer climate less yield failures are noticed (DEFRA, 2006; Handboek
Snijmaïs, Olesen & Bindi, 2004 3 ). In the UK there was a fivefold increase from 1989 to 2005 (DEFRA,
2006). In Denmark the area of silage maize has increased from 11,000 ha in 1980 to 118,000 ha in
2003 (Olesen & Bindi, 2004). Also in Germany and Poland, the northern countries of the central zone,
the land used for silage maize has increased. Grain maize that needs to fully ripen within the growing
season becomes an option for farms in the North.
2 http://www.maizeurop.com/pages/iso_album/20091030maizinfoct2009.pdf
3 Olesen J.E., Bindi M. (2004) Agricultural impacts and adaptations to climate change in Europe. Farm
Policy J 1(3): 36–46.
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