agriculture that includes mainly citrus, potatoes, vegetables, melons,
deciduous fruit, table grapes and bananas, and rain fed or dry land
agriculture that includes mainly cereals, fodders, olives, carobs, almonds
and wine grapes.
Some of the problems that Cypriot farmers have to face are shortage of
water, excessive land fragmentation, prevalence of smallholdings and
competition from other sectors of the economy for land and labor. Before
Cyprus’ EU accession, the Government has been supporting the fruit,
vegetable and olive oil sectors by providing input and loan subsidies, grants,
marketing assistance and fixed prices on certain items. However, after EU
accession all of the above measures virtually disappeared, but various
support schemes administered by the Cyprus Agricultural Payments
Organization (CAPO) have been implemented.
2. Natural conditions and land use
Cyprus is a small country with 9,251 km2 (3,572 miles 2) total area and
a coastline of 648 km. The island has been divided since the 1974 Turkish
invasion between the internationally recognized Cyprus Government that
controls the southern part and the illegal Turkish- controlled northern part
on a 1,5:1 proportion. From a total area of 925,100 ha the Utilized
Agricultural Area (UAA) in the areas under the Cyprus government control
represent 134,000 ha or 14.5% of the total area. The Cypriot climate is
noticed for its temperate, Mediterranean attributes with hot, dry summers
and cool winters. In terms of natural hazards, the area has a moderate
earthquake activity. Although Cyprus is a fully developed economy with
approximately US$ 20,000 GNP per capita, it has severe water resource
problems, water pollution from sewage and industrial wastes and coastal
degradation and loss of wildlife habitats from urbanization. However, the
advancement of technology has shifted attention to alternative ways of
dealing with its adverse climatic conditions (i.e. Southern Conveyor Project
and desalination plants along the coastal areas). These projects resulted in
an increased water supply for agriculture.
2.1. Land resource potential and constraints
Land resource constraints usually do not allow the growth and
expansion of the agricultural sector. Its relatively small size and its specific
configuration do not allow any aspiration for economies of scale. Land
fragmentation of agricultural land is a problem in Cyprus even though a
continuous and well carried out program of land reform and reclamation
pursued in the country has managed to improve this. The age- old tradition
of passing on farm land form parents to children has, inevitably, led to
severe fragmentation of land ownership thus forcing farmers to small- scale
farming. Thus, such a major structural weakness is a permanent bottleneck
for any plans for economies of scale in production. In turn these economies
are badly needed for the maintenance of any notion of competitive
advantage but land fragmentation is simply foiling this.
In Cyprus, 47% of the appropriate land area is in arable production
and 25% is forests. The soils are of the Mediterranean type with high pH
values, high CaCO3 contents and low organic matter contents. The
predominant soil types are calcareous lithosols and xerosols. Zinc deficiency