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Cyprus Agriculture
When Cyprus achieved independence in 1960, the backbone
of its
economy was agriculture, mostly small farms, and sometimes
even
subsistence farms. During the 1960s, irrigation projects
made
possible vegetable and fruit exports; increasingly
commercialized
farming was able to meet the demands for meat, dairy
products, and
wine from the British and United Nations troops stationed
on the
island and from the growing number of tourists.
In the early 1970s, Cypriot farms, still overwhelmingly
small
owner-run units, furnished about 70 percent of commodity
exports
and employed about 95,000 people, or one-third of the
island's
economically active population. Given the expansion of the
manufacturing and service sectors, however, agriculture's
importance was declining, and in the first half of the
1970s its
share of GDP amounted to 18 percent.
The de facto division of the island in 1974 left the
Turkish
Cypriot community in the north in possession of
agricultural
resources that produced about four-fifths of the citrus
and cereal
crops, two-thirds of the green fodder, and all of the
tobacco
(see
fig. 7). The south retained nearly all of the island's
grapegrowing areas and deciduous fruit orchards. The south also
possessed lands producing roughly three-fourths of the
valuable
potato crop and other vegetables (excluding carrots), half
the
island's olive trees, and two-thirds of its carob trees.
In
addition, the south retained two-thirds of the livestock
population.
The Turkish occupation caused a large-scale
uncoordinated
exchange of the agricultural work force between the
northern and
southern zones. The resulting substantial agricultural
unemployment
was countered by government actions that included
financial
assistance on easy terms to farmers. By 1978 the number of
persons
working in agriculture in the government-controlled area
amounted
to about 47,000, or 23 percent of the working population.
Thereafter, however, agriculture's portion of the work
force
declined to 20.7 percent in 1979 and 15.8 percent in 1987.
Its
contribution to the economy also declined; from 17.3
percent of GDP
in 1976 to 10.7 percent in 1979 and 7.7 percent in 1988.
This share
was important to the south's economy, however, and in 1988
value
added in agriculture, at constant 1985 prices, was C£112.7
million.
Agriculture's share of the national economy could be
expected
to decline still further in the 1990s, as the Greek
Cypriot economy
became even more dominated by the service sector. The
island's
favorable climate and its location near its leading
market, Western
Europe, however, meant that farming would remain an
important and
stable part of the overall economy. Government irrigation
projects,
subsidies, and tax policies encouraged farming's
existence, as did
research in new crops and new varieties of ones already in
cultivation.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources
oversaw
efforts to improve agriculture, fishing, and forestry.
Subordinate
to this ministry and assisting it were, among others, the
Agricultural Research Institute, the Veterinary Service,
the
Meteorological Service, the Department of Water
Development, the
Department of Forests, and the Department of Geological
Survey.
In addition to macroeconomic considerations, the
government
encouraged agriculture because it provided rural
employment, which
maintained village life and relieved urban crowding.
Small-scale
agricultural activity prevented some regions from losing
much of
their population. Part-time agricultural work also
permitted urban
residents to keep in contact with their villages and gave
them
supplemental income.
Data as of January 1991
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