The Risk of Agricultural Land Abandonment as a Socioeconomic Challenge for the Development of Agriculture in the European Union

In this article, the risk of agricultural farmland abandonment was assessed with the use of a synthetic measure of socioeconomic problems as challenges to the quality of life in rural areas in the European Union. To determine the direction and dynamics of changes in farmland abandonment in the EU countries, variables based on EUROSTAT and FADN data were analyzed using Hellwig’s method, and data for 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019 were compared. The EUROSTAT methodology for the agri-environmental indicator “risk of land abandonment” was adapted for the needs of this study. Agricultural land is abandoned for many reasons, including conversion to other uses, but also abandonment of farming. The results of the analysis indicate that the risk of farmland abandonment was highest in countries with difficult farming conditions, such as Greece, Spain, Portugal, Romania, and Finland. In turn, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, i.e., the most economically developed countries, were most resilient to this risk. An analysis of the factors that contribute to farmland abandonment demonstrated that the likelihood of this risk decreases with a rise in agricultural investments, farm income, population density, prices of agricultural land, road quality, and density. A high proportion of ageing farm owners was the only factor that increased the risk of agricultural land abandonment.