The area under fallow almost tripled last year, according to crop area figures submitted to the Department of Agriculture in 2024.

The final figures released on 20 January show that the area under fallow declined in 2022, but has risen since that time.

In fact, the area doubled in 2023 and tripled from 2022 to 2024.

Fallow land is not planted with a crop and cannot be grazed or used for agricultural production, but the farmer can still receive direct payments on this area.

The fallow area was as follows:

  • 2022 – 1,181
  • 2023 – 2,364
  • 2024 – 3,487

    • Weather

    Weather conditions most likely played a large role in the increase in the area of fallow in those years. Farmers struggled to harvest crops in some areas in autumn 2023 and struggled to plant in autumn 2023 and spring 2024, some winter crops were sown and did not emerge. The autumn of 2022 also proved difficult for planting.

    Taking tillage crop margins into account as well as weather conditions, some farmers may have decided the best option for some parts of their farm was not to plant it.

    It should be noted that this article refers to 'fallow' and generally refers to tillage land left idle.

    There are 218,595ha under environmental management of fallow land under ACRES which is in grassland.

    In 2024, in the UK the area of fallow increased by 107% to 581,000ha - 276,000ha of this were left as bare fallow and 305,000ha were used for environmental benefit. Farmers can receive a payment of £589/ha (€698/ha) or €282/ac for fallow in the UK.

    Crop area

    The final crop area figures for 2024 were published by the Department of Agriculture this month. The main tillage crop area declined by 1.4% or 4,708ha from 346,700ha in 2023 to 341,991ha in 2024.