Articles by Maatalousväestön taloudellista asemaa selvittävä komitea
Category : Article
The Finnish Government appointed a committee in 1955 to analyse the economic status of the population living from agriculture. The present paper contains Part II of the proceedings of this committee. It discusses the earnings of the agricultural population from forestry and occasional work.
Agricultural population was defined as all people living from holdings of at least 2 hectares of agricultural land. Forestry income includes, besides the value of stumpage sold, earnings from logging in connection with delivery contracts. Earnings from occasional work include wages for logging made to the account of someone else, as well as wages for agricultural work, floating, carpentry, road construction and maintenance work etc.
In 1951–1954, the farms in Finland received an average aggregate of 29 milliard Fmk for stumpage, 10 milliard Fmk of which consists of the value assigned to the timber consumed by the farms themselves. The average income from stumpage was 110,000 Fmk per farm. The earnings from logging in connection with delivery contracts amounted to 3.3 milliard Fmk, and the earnings from occasional work to 6.7 milliard Fmk. The income from stumpage together with the earnings from delivery loggings amounted to 123,000 Fmk per farm. Adding the earnings from occasional forest work, an aggregate forestry income of 150,000 Fmk per farm has been obtained, 70–75% of which accounts for stumpage price.
The occasional earnings from sources other than forestry were on average 12–13 milliard Fmk, or 45,000–50,000 Fmk per farm. The agricultural income of the farms was 60.4 milliard Fmk, or 230,000 Fmk per farm. Thus, the aggregate income of the farms was 110 milliard Fmk, or 420,000 Fmk per farm.
The financial surplus from forestry per farm for the farms included in the study in 1951–1954 was on average 21, and the income from forestry 18 times as high as in 1934–39. The income from stumpage at the end of the same period was 18, and the earnings from occasional work 27 times as high as at the beginning of the period.
The agricultural income has the greatest relative importance in Southern Finland and Eastern Bothnia. The income from stumpage, in turn, has the greatest relative significance in supporting agriculture in the inner part of Finland, while the occasional income plays its most vital role in northeast Finland.
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