Agriculture is intensive and highly mechanized, producing about 60% of the UK's food needs. Agriculture's importance has declined in recent years; including forestry and fishing, it contributed about 1% to the GDP in 2001, down from 2.3% in 1971. In 2001, agricultural products accounted for 4.9% of exports and there was an agricultural trade deficit of almost $13.5 billion (second after Japan). Agriculture engaged 1% of the labor force in 1999.
Just over 26% of Great Britain's land area was devoted to crops in 1998. There were about 240,000 holdings, down from 422,000 in the late 1960s. In Great Britain roughly 70% of the farms are primarily or entirely owner-occupied, but in Northern Ireland nearly all are.
Most British farms produce a variety of products. The type of farming varies with the soil and climate. The better farming land is generally in the lowlands. The eastern areas are predominantly arable, and the western predominantly for grazing. Chief crops (with estimated 1999 production in tons) were barley, 6,510,000; wheat, 14,870,000; potatoes, 7,100,000; sugar beets, 10,228,000; oats, 540,000; and oilseed rape, 1,667,000. Mechanization and research have greatly increased agricultural productivity; between 1989 and 1999, for example, production of wheat per hectare rose 12%; of barley, 7%; and of sugar beets, 32%. Consequently, the United Kingdom in the 1990s produced 60% of its total food needs, whereas prior to World War II (1939–45), it produced only about 33%, and in 1960, less than half. The estimated number of tractors in the United Kingdom in 1998 was 500,000, as against 55,000 in 1939; some 47,000 combines were also in use.
Agriculture system is the better than any others of another country. We should work with in the world. We should Stand with poor and rich country in the world