Synthèse nationale de la situation des exploitations agricoles en 1962

National synthesis of the situation of the farms in 1962. Evolution form 1959 to 1969 -The specialized division of synthetical studies has carried out an analysis of the French agriculture based on the agricultural census of 1963. A typology called « land utilization » (similar to that used by the accountancy) was used for 180 groups of agricultural areas. This analysis through which 5 000 productions systems could be described, was subject to syntheses by geographical areas and then to a national synthesis. The latter revealed distributions of log-normal type of the farm size, production or income. Besides, it stresses the importance of tfe final production per unit which is as important as the notion of acreage. The classification of farms according to their final production per unit can be assumed stable as their distribution is equally of a log-normal type. Besides, the average R.B.E. per farm calculated at the level of each intensification class is relatively constant, irrespective of the value of the average final production per unit. This result indicates that the agricultural structures seem to adapt themselves to the income derived from the land. This relative constancy of the structure of the production account observed during the ten-year period 1959-1969 is due to a compensation between the progress of returns and prices, these two factors acting in a contrary direction. Consequently, the areas where technical innovation is slow, usually meat-producing areas, have maintained their position in relation to the areas where the technical level is high, generally grain-growing areas. The results of this analysis should be verified and continued using the general agricultural census of 1970 with similar objects in mind.