Siege Farming In Malta

Abstract

Malta and Gozo contain some 45,000 acres of arable land within the 114 square miles of their rocky islands, of which around 2,000 to 3,000 acres are under irrigation. While this area, obviously, cannot support the population of over a quarter of a million, it sustains the 13,000 peasant farmers who, along with their families, total some 70,000 people, keeping them fully fed. Ample supplies of fresh vegetables, potatoes, onions, and milk are sold to the civil and Service inhabitants of the towns, along with Mediterranean clover, vetches, and carobs to the urban goat keepers and carters for their horses. Despite these efforts, the bulk of Malta's food requirements must still be imported, including thousands of tons of feed and 2,000 tons of seed potatoes annually. The only significant agricultural exports during peacetime were 10,000 to 15,000 tons of potatoes to Britain and the Continent, 2,500 tons of onions, and 250 tons of cumin seed, with a total annual value of about £130,000 annually.