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Recklinghausen (dpa / lnw) - Agriculture in North Rhine-Westphalia loses an area the size of about 27 soccer fields per day due to the use of the soil for residential construction or leisure and recreation areas, among other things.
This emerges from the latest area report by the State Office for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection (LANUV).
Accordingly, the daily loss of agricultural land in 2019 was 19 hectares.
This means a downward trend compared to 23.1 hectares daily in 2018 and 23.7 hectares daily in 2017.
The growth of settlement and traffic areas continued at the same time.
It was 6.3 hectares per day in 2017.
In 2018 it was 5.2 and in 2019 with 8.1 hectares per day again significantly more.
According to an overview, the proportion of sports, leisure and recreation areas as well as wooded areas increased in the three-year period.
In 2019, 47 percent of the total land area was accounted for by agriculture, almost 25 percent by forest, almost 17 percent by settlements, 7 percent by transport and just under 2 percent by water.
Farmers' representatives are calling on the state government to ensure a significant reduction in land consumption.
The loss of usable land for agriculture in the three years will be 240 square kilometers equal to the area of the city of Duisburg, the Rhenish Agricultural Association made clear on Monday.
This intensifies the price spiral in the leasing of agricultural land.
At the same time, however, politicians are demanding that farmers give up arable land and grassland in favor of biodiversity and species protection.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210412-99-176636 / 2
LANUV area report 2017-2019
Association