As the economy started powering ahead developing alternative sectors such
as tourism, the slow but steady exodus from rural areas to the cities begun.
Table 4 (Appendix) shows aptly the dramatic shift between rural and urban
populations in Cyprus. The exodus from the rural areas that started in the
60s took a momentous rise in 1974 in the aftermath of the Turkish invasion
that forcibly moved several thousands of Greek Cypriots living in the
northern part of the Island to the southern part. In 1973, rural population
was 58%, in 1976 was 47% and in 1992 was 32%. During this period, several
communities lost an average of 50% of their populations to the burgeoning
cities. Certain communities lost as much as 80% of their locals. The flip side
of this is the spiraling population in urban centers from 262,000 in 1976 to
407,000 in 1992. The rate of abandonment of course did not continue with
the same intensity but still persists to this day.
Recently, the rise of tourism has been rapid and far- reaching, with
agriculture being one of the primary sectors that were affected in various
ways. The rise of agro tourism the last few years is an attempt by planners
along with crucial support and funding from the EU to remedy that and
bring again balance to the employment mixture in the country. The number
of full- time farmers has been reduced drastically in the last decades. In
2004 only 7% of the gainfully employed persons were engaged in
agriculture. In the meantime the proportion of part time farming is close to
80% while the number of foreign workers is increasing. In certain
agricultural sub- sectors, like livestock enterprises, the majority of workers
are foreigners. Due to EU accession and the strong support of farming
activities through the Rural Development Plan, which is funded by the EU, it
is expected that the level of employment in agriculture will remain more or
less stable in the coming years.
3.5. Price and incomes
Today, the economy relies primarily on services, i.e. tourism, financial
services and shipping. The loss of agricultural land to the tourism industry
has been an incident unraveling in Cyprus for years (Sinclair et al., 2005).
The agricultural sector’ s contribution to the employment of the
economically active population has shrunk substantially from the previous
to 7% in full employment equivalent. It is actually estimated that about half
of that concerns laborers that secure at least 50% of their income from
agriculture. Most of the problems affecting the income level of farmers have
to do with structural problems that beset agriculture for many years now
like: the small size of agricultural plots, the low agricultural income and
large dependence on off farm activities to supplement total family income,
and the great disparities among farming incomes. A recent study by
Eurostat indicates that agricultural farm income has decreased by about 25%
in 2004 compared to 2000 (Statistics in Focus, 2006). Some of the reasons
for the low farm income are discussed below.