Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – Farmers in North Rhine-Westphalia grew more wheat in 2022 than a year earlier. The grain was therefore grown on an area of ??248,400 hectares, 4.9 percent more than in 2021. As the State Statistical Office (IT.NRW) announced on Thursday based on preliminary results of the main land use survey, wheat grows to 23.4 percent of the entire North Rhine- Westphalian arable land of 1.063 million hectares.
By far the largest share is winter wheat (244,000 hectares), spring wheat is grown on a further 4,400 hectares. The rye, which is mainly used as bread grain, is grown in NRW on an area of ??34,700 hectares. On the other hand, farmers reduced the area under winter barley, which is mostly used as feed grain, by 4.2 percent to 135,200 hectares. The spring barley, mainly used as malting barley, grows on 9,200 hectares.
With 577,400 hectares of arable land and a share of 54.3 percent of the total arable land, grain cultivation remains the focus of arable farming in North Rhine-Westphalia, the statisticians determined. The acreage of oil crops, which are commercial crops, has also increased. It was expanded by 18.2 percent to 52,800 hectares in 2022. The decisive factor for the large increase here is the increased cultivation of winter rape, the area under cultivation of which grew by 16.8 percent to 51,400 hectares compared to the previous year.
The area for the cultivation of sunflowers has now more than doubled to 400 hectares (168.8 percent). Potatoes (5.2), sugar beets (1.6), field beans (16.9), peas (3.2) and soybeans (26.3) also got more area.
