Organic farming, considered the most environment-friendly type of land cultivation, is still very unpopular in Malta, which features at the bottom of an EU list. A new European Commission publication shows that, in 2011, only 0.2 per cent of all Maltese agricultural land was used to grow organic produce.

Despite programmes to encourage farmers to grow organic produce, the situation remained almost unchanged since 2007 when only 20 hectares of land were used for this. Three more hectares were added by 2011.

This jars with the rest of the EU, where organic farming is increasing considerably.

According to EU statistics, while in 2007 the area dedicated to organic farming in the EU-28 stood at 5.7 million hectares, it rose to 9.6 million hectares in 2011.

Over the past decade, organic farming area improved by about 500,000 hectares a year.

Among the small Maltese organic farmland, 47.8 per cent was used to grow vegetables with the rest dedicated to organic permanent crops.

On an EU level, Austria had the highest rate of organic farming in 2011, 19.6 per cent of all farmland, followed by Sweden, at 15.7 per cent.

The laggards, apart from Malta, are Bulgaria (0.5 per cent), Ireland (1.1 per cent) and Romania, which also ranked negatively with 1.6 per cent.

Organic food products have minimal human impact on the environment and the agricultural system employed operates as naturally as possible.

Some people see such products as being tastier or healthier than those from conventional agriculture. Others appreciate the good practices towards the environment or the labour force employed on organic farms.