Agriculture is practised in all parts of Finland up to the northernmost Lapland. Agriculture is the most important employer in the countryside and the dominating element of the rural landscape. Finland is quite self-sufficient in basic agricultural products. In 2004 there were 71,000 farms receiving agricultural support in Finland. The total agricultural area is about 2.2 million hectares. Most of the cereal production and pig and poultry husbandry are located in the south, while the role of milk production increases towards the north and east.

In 2004 the share of the agriculture, game and fisheries sectors in the GDP of the national economy was 1.2 per cent. The employment effect of agriculture was 3.9 per cent. Income development of farmers has fallen behind the earnings of people working in the other sectors.

Most of the Finnish farms are still very small, but the farm size has grown considerably over the past decade. At the same time the number of farms has been falling rapidly.