Recent climatic trends and the limits of crop cultivation in Finland

Abstract

Developments in arable farming in Finland are regarded as reflecting changes in the climate. Harvest yields certainly appear to follow annual temperature variations, although a more general trend for improved harvests in Southern Finland and poorer harvests in the north may be also be discerned, which cannot be attributed to climate since mean temperatures have remained more or less constant in the long term. In this context variations in agricultural prices and cost levels appear to have contributed to the changes in limits of cultivation during recent decades.