UNECE Seed potato Meeting
Oulu 8.9.2015
Photo: photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Photo:photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
9.9.2015
Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry Marja Savonmäki
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The venue of the meeting is Oulu, beautiful city located
in the region of Northern Ostrobothnia. Oulu has about
191,000 residents and is the fifth largest city in Finland.
Photo: © Oulun kaupunki
Photo: photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
9.9.2015
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This is Finland:
-Population of Finland: 5,479,018
-Two official languages (Finnish and Swedish)
-Finland joined the European Union 1995
-Long country extending about 1100 kilometres
from south to the north
- Finland- a land of four seasons: spring,
summer, autumn and winter -each season is
different in Finland!
- Contrast between summer and winter is huge
9.9.2015
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White summer nights:
- Because of the northern location there is
daylight in summertime around the clock across
the whole Finland
Photo : photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
9.9.2015
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- Lapland, north of the Arctic Circle, has
"nightless nights" in the middle of the summer
(starts end of May and continues to mid-July)
Winter:
-In the middle of winter daytime is very short. In
the south of the country daylight in December
lasts only for 6 hours. In northern Lapland a
period of darkness prevails at that time, with the
sun not rising above the horizon at all
9.9.2015
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-During January and February
there is almost always snow in
northern and eastern Finland
(there can be even up to one
metre of snow in northern
Finland)
Photo: photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Photo: photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
9.9.2015
Photo: photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
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-Finland is the most forested country in EU with
71 per cent of the land area covered with forest
Photo: photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
9.9.2015
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-Finland is the most sparsely populated country in
the European Union, with only 16 inhabitants per
km².
-There are exactly 187,888 lakes (larger than 500
m²) and 179,584 islands within the territory of
Finland. Both are world records.
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Photo: photo archive MMM/Hannu Vallas
Agriculture in Finland
Photo: photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Photo: photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Photo: photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry
Photo: photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
9.9.2015
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-Finland is northernmost country in the world
with agricultural activities
-Most of our plant producing farms are in
southern Finland
-Animal husbandary is practiced in the central,
eastern and northern parts of the country
-In the very north, in
Lapland,reindeer husbandary
is a significant livelihood
-In 2014 25 per cent of the
farms raised livestock
Photo: photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
9.9.2015
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and 69 per cent engaged in plant production
-Agriculture is mainly based on family farming
and in our country forest is an essential part of
farms
-In total there are about 56 000 farms in Finland
(year 2014)
-Average arable area of the farms is about 41
hectares (year 2014)
-Main crops grown in Finland include wheat,
barley, oats and grasses
-Potato production area (2014) 22 000 hectares
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-Varieties that are suited to our conditions are
particularly important for Finland, as they need
to be adapted to long summer days and our
special climate and soil conditions
-Varieties bred for Finnish conditions must be
capable of taking full advantage of the short and
quite cool growing season with
abundant daylight
-Even at its longest the growing season in
southern Finland is about 170 days and in
northernmost Finland the growing season is
only about 120 days long
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THANK YOU!
Photo:photo archive of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
9.9.2015
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