Agricultural land

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"Cropland" and "farmland" redirect here. For land being farmed, see sown land. For the film, see
Farmland (film). For the town in Indiana, see Farmland, Indiana.

Photo showing piece of agricultural land irrigated and ploughed for paddy cultivation.

Agricultural land is typically land devoted to agriculture,[1] the systematic and controlled use of
other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce
food for humans.[2][3] It is thus generally synonymous with both farmland or cropland, as well
as pasture or rangeland.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and others following its definitions,
however, also use agricultural land or agricultural area as a term of art, where it means the
collection of:[4][5]

"arable land" (a.k.a. cropland): here redefined to refer to land producing crops requiring
annual replanting or fallowland or pasture used for such crops within any five-year period
"permanent cropland": land producing crops which do not require annual replanting
permanent pastures: natural or artificial grasslands and shrublands able to be used for
grazing livestock

This sense of "agricultural land" thus includes a great deal of land not devoted to agricultural use.
The land actually under annually-replanted crops in any given year is instead said to constitute
"sown land" or "cropped land". "Permanent cropland" includes forested plantations used to
harvest coffee, rubber, or fruit but not tree farms or proper forests used for wood or timber. Land
able to be used for farming is called "cultivable land". Farmland, meanwhile, is used variously
in reference to all agricultural land, to all cultivable land, or just to the newly restricted sense of
"arable land". Depending upon its use of artificial irrigation, the FAO's "agricultural land" may
be divided into irrigated and non-irrigated land.

In the context of zoning, agricultural land or agriculturally-zoned land refers to plots that are
permitted to be used for agricultural activities, without regard to its present use or even
suitability. In some areas, agricultural land is protected so that it can be farmed without any
threat of development. The Agricultural Land Reserve in British Columbia in Canada, for
instance, requires approval from its Agricultural Land Commission before its lands can be
removed or subdivided.[6]

Contents
[hide]

1 Area
2 Russia
3 Ukraine
4 See also
5 External links
6 References

Area[edit]
Under the FAO's definitions above, agricultural land covers 38.4% of the world's land area as of
2011. Permanent pastures are 68.4% of all agricultural land (26.3% of global land area), arable
land (row crops) is 28.4% of all agricultural land (10.9% of global land area), and permanent
crops (e.g. vineyards and orchards) are 3.1% (1.2% of global land area).[7][8]

Total of land used to produce food: 49,116,227 square kilometers or 18,963,881 square
miles
Arable land: 13,963,743 square kilometers or 5,391,431 square miles
Permanent crops: 1,537,338 square kilometers or 593,570 square miles
Permanent pastures: 33,585,676 square kilometers or 12,967,502 square miles

Globally, the total amount of permanent pasture according to the FAO has been in decline since
1998,[9] although it should be noted that this does not account for gross conversion (e.g. land
extensively cleared for agriculture in some areas, while converted from agriculture to other uses
elsewhere) and more detailed analyses have demonstrated this. For example, Lark et al. 2015
found that in the United States cropland increased by 2.98 million acres from 2008-2012
(comprising 7.34 million acres (29,700 km2) converted to agriculture, and 4.36 million acres
(17,600 km2) converted from agriculture).[10]

Agricultural Land Area ('000 km2)

2008 2009 2010 2011
USA 4,044 4,035 4,109 4,113
Germany 169 169 167 167

Source: Helgi Library,[11] World Bank, FAOSTAT

Russia[edit]
The cost of Russian farmland is as little as 1,500-2,000/ha (1,260-1,680/ha).[12] Farmland can
be available in France for roughly 10,000/ha, but this is a bargain; for quality soil, realistic
prices vary between 50,000-100,000/ha . Farmland has been seen to be available on the Spanish
market for as little as 10,000/ha, but this is non-irrigated land.

The average Russian farm measures 150ha.[12] The most prevalent crops in Russia are wheat,
barley, corn, rice, sugar beet, soy beans, sunflower, potatoes and vegetables.[12] The Krasnodar
region in Russia has 86,000ha of arable land.[12] Russian farmers harvested roughly 85-90
million tonnes of wheat annually in the years around 2010.[12] Russia exported most to Egypt,
Turkey and Iran in 2012; China was a significant export market as well.[12] The average yield
from the Krasnodar region was between 4 and 5 tonnes per ha, while the Russian average was
only 2t/ha.[12] The Basic Element Group, which is a conglomerate owned by Oleg Deripaska, is
one of Russia's leading agricultural producers, and owns or manages 109,000ha of Russian
farmland, out of 90m actual and 115m total (0.12% actual).[12]

Ukraine[edit]
In 2013, Ukraine was ranked third in corn production and sixth in wheat production.[13] It was the
main supplier of corn, wheat, and rape to Europe,[13] although it is unclear whether the internal
supply from countries like France were accounted in this calculation. Ukrainian farmers achieve
60% of the output per unit area of their North American competitors.[13] UkrLandFarming PLC
produces from 1.6m acres corn wheat barley sugar beet and sunflowers.[13] Until 2014, the chief
Ukrainian export terminal was the Crimean port of Sebastopol.[13]