In 1981, there were a total of 937,878 hectares of arable land in Sweden. In 2019 the arable land used was no more than 551 499 hectares. This is a 41 percent decrease. A large part of the lost arable land has been planted with forest, but parts have also been converted into land and industrial land.

"It's very boring," says Erik Forsberg, who farms around 520 hectares on Nolby farm north of Kil.

In Värmland, the cultivated arable land has gone from 123 909 hectares in 1981 to 104 855 hectares in 2019. The percentage reduction then falls to 15 per cent, which is considerably lower than the national average, even if the area is as large as just over 19,000 hectares.

Goes against the current

However, Erik Forsberg has chosen to defy the trend of the last few decades to change the arable land to forest land. Last winter he felled seven hectares of forest and broke with the new arable land.

- There will be cereals grown there, there will be oats the first year, says Erik Forsberg.

In the clip above, Erik Forsberg tells us more about the transition.