Organic Farming in Lithuania: Context of the Rural Development Programme

The European Union and Lithuania support the development of an organic farming in Lithuania. There were 106 certified organic farms in 1997, in 2004 - already 1178, in 2007 - 2855 farms, and in 2008 there were 2805 certified farms. Besides certified organic production area was 127,362 hectares - almost 5 percent from declared agricultural land area. Comparing the 2007 to 2006 there were observed the tangible increase of organic farm production and in certified area. Comparing 2008 with 2007, the number of organic farms and the area decreased. The average of an organic farm size increased. During the years 1997-2008 it increased by 30.6 ha, or 3.07 times. The growth of organic production volumes influenced the changes of organic farms crops structure. In 2002-2003, in the structure of organic farms crops forage took the predominant place (37-49 percent), and in 2004-2005 already cereals and legume crops started to predominate. Sheep are mainly grown in Lithuanian organic farms. Comparing the 2007 to 2008 Lithuania organic certified farms increased the growing of sheep and dairy cows, but decreased for fattening cattle.