How much land is used for agriculture on Earth?
· Globally, up to 1.1 billion acres of agricultural land have already exhausted their productive value, undermined of the rich biodiversity that sustains them, with their soils depleted of nutrients or deprived of moisture and washed away by the wind.
How much of the Earth is land?
· How Much Land Do We Use For Agriculture On Earth. Of the land available on Earth, several sources indicate we use about 38% of it for agriculture as a global average. One source puts that number as high as 50%. When looking at the different human uses for land, agriculture is the major land use, with forestry being second.
What are the types of agricultural land in the world?
· Half of all habitable land is used for agriculture. 2. This leaves only 37% for forests; 11% as shrubs and grasslands; 1% as freshwater coverage; and the remaining 1% – a much …
Which country has the largest agricultural land area in the world?
· The total area of agricultural lands in the world is 4973. 4 million ha. They cover 33. 3% of terrestrial surface (2003), including 10. 3% of arable land and land under permanent …
What is the percentage of the Earth’s land used by farmers?
The global impact of farming on the environment is revealed in new maps, which show that 40 percent of the Earth’s land is now given over to agriculture.
Is approximately 60% of our planet is farmland?
Today, the world population uses approximately 50 percent of total habitable land for agriculture.
Can we feed world without meat?
Food production is about a tenth of the world’s approximate global GDP of $88 trillion1 and a recent study found that if everyone alive ate meat at the rate of the average American consumer, we would need to use 138 percent of the habitable area of the planet for agriculture alone2. It’s just physically impossible.
Is there enough land for everyone?
Habitable vs uninhabitable land Physically, the land can easily accommodate 11 billion people – there are around 13.4 billion hectares of ice-free land. But large tracts of land remain virtually uninhabitable due to their climate or their remote location: Enormous tracts of Siberia are too inhospitable to be lived upon …
How much of the Earth’s land is pasture?
One-quarter of the earth’s land (excluding Antarctica) is used as pasture land overall (wri.org) 26% of the Earth’s ice-free terrestrial surface is used for grazing (globalagriculture.org) Right now, the the FAO reports 7.9 billion acres of arable land in the world (plantricianproject.org).
How much of the world’s arable land is used for farming?
One-third of global arable land is used to grow feed. – globalagriculture.org. [Of the 51 million km squared area of habitable land used as agricultural land in the world, 40 million km squared is used for livestock/meat and dairy, and 11 million km squared is used for crops excluding feed.
What is arable land used for?
Some arable land is used to grow crops (such as corn, barley, oats, soy, and so on) that become feed for livestock (instead of going straight to human consumption), which technically means it’s part of the total land being used for livestock production.
What are the two types of agricultural land?
Different Types Of Agricultural Land. The two main types of agricultural land are: – Pasture/grazing/range land (also referred to as meadows) Used for livestock rearing and animal product production. – Arable/cropland (also referred to as cultivated land) Used for crop production.
What is land used for agriculture?
Land used for agricultural production (like livestock and crop production) is referred to as agricultural land
How much of the world’s land is cropped?
At present some 11 percent (1.5 billion ha) of the globe’s land surface (13.4 billion ha) is used in crop production (arable land and land under permanent crops). This area represents slightly over a third (36 percent) of the land estimated to be to some degree suitable for crop production.
What is the majority of the world’s cultivated land used for?
When looking specifically at arable land and cropland, majority of the world’s cultivated land is used for crops that need to be replanted compared to crops that don’t need to be replanted.
What percentage of land is used for agriculture?
Half of all habitable land is used for agriculture. 2. This leaves only 37% for forests; 11% as shrubs and grasslands; 1% as freshwater coverage; and the remaining 1% – a much smaller share than many suspect – is built-up urban area which includes cities, towns, villages, roads and other human infrastructure.
How much of the world’s land is livestock?
If we combine pastures used for grazing with land used to grow crops for animal feed, livestock accounts for 77% of global farming land. While livestock takes up most of the world’s agricultural land it only produces 18% …
How much protein is in animal products?
The global average per capita protein availability from vegetal products was 49 grams per person per day, and 32g from animal products. Animal products therefore accounted for [32 / (32 + 49) * 100] = 39% of the world’s protein.
What are the major uncertainties in the allocation of rangelands?
The major uncertainties – and explanation for discrepancies – in these assessments is the allocation of ‘rangelands’: in some regions it can be difficult to accurately quantify how much of rangelands are used for grazing, and how much is free from human pressure. Despite this uncertainty, most analyses tend to converge on an estimate of close to half of habitable land being used for agriculture.
How much of the world’s ice free land is used for farming?
If we rewind 1000 years, it is estimated that only 4 million square kilometers – less than 4% of the world’s ice-free and non-barren land area was used for farming. In the visualization we see the breakdown …
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Our World in Data presents the empirical evidence on global development in entries dedicated to specific topics.
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What is agricultural land?
Agricultural land includes: – Arable land (cropland) used for crop production (usually with suitable soil conditions for crop production) Of the land used for crops, some types of crops such as wheat, maize, rice and barley take up much more total and proportional cropland than others.
What percentage of the Earth’s surface is land?
Most of the Earth’s surface is water (both saltwater, and fresh water bodies) Only about 29% of the total surface of the Earth is land (such as continents and islands) Types Of Land, & Land Uses. Two of the major types of land on Earth are habitable land (that we can live and produce on), and non habitable land (that we can’t live or produce on, …
What are the benefits of forest land?
In general, forest land offers benefits including but not limited to: – providing much of the world’s biodiversity. – the trees in a forest produce oxygen, but also act as a carbon sink. – contribute to soil health, water quality, and other ecosystem support functions.
Which country uses less land for forestry?
On the country, the wikipedia.org and soe.environment.gov.au resources show that Australia and the United States use different proportions of land for forestry (both native and plantation forests). Australia uses far less.
How many types of land use are there in the US?
The US Department of Agriculture has identified six major types of land use in the US.
What are the major uses of land in the United States?
Major Uses Of Land In The United States. Using the United States as one example of what a country uses it’s land for, pasture/rangeland, forest and cropland are the major land uses in the US across all States, in terms of total acreage. Special use, miscellaneous and urban came in third through sixth.
What makes up the same proportions of the world’s total land use?
Agricultural land, forest land and ‘other’ land all make up around the same proportions of the world’s total land uses
How much land is there in the world?
The Land Area of the World is 13,003 million ha. 4,889 million ha are classified as ‘agricultural area’ by the FAO (this is 37.6% of the Land Area).
What percentage of land is used for agriculture?
Half of all habitable land is used for agriculture. 2. This leaves only 37% for forests; 11% as shrubs and grasslands; 1% as freshwater coverage; and the remaining 1% – a much smaller share than many suspect – is built-up urban area which includes cities, towns, villages, roads and other human infrastructure.
What is the agricultural area?
The agricultural area is the sum of arable land, permanent crops, permanent meadows and pastures.
What is pastureland used for?
Pastureland (permanent meadows and pasture) For most countries, the majority of agricultural land is used for livestock rearing in the form of pastureland. In the map here we see the share of permanent meadows and pasture as a percentage of total land area.
What percentage of land is used for livestock grazing?
For most countries, land dedicated to cropland is typically below 20 percent , with many countries dedicating less than 10 percent. There are some notable exceptions, however; countries in South Asia and Europe allocate a large share of land area to arable farming. India, Bangladesh, Ukraine and Denmark all dedicated more than half of total land area to cropland in 2015.
What are the two main uses of agricultural land?
There are two main uses of agricultural land: arable farming (which is land dedicated to growing crops), and pastureland ( which includes meadows and pastures used for livestock rearing). In the chart here we see a global map of land used for arable agriculture (as a share of total land area).
What is cropland measured in?
This visualisation shows total cropland (which does not include land for grazing) over the long-term, measured in hectares.
What percentage of land in the world is used for agriculture?
4.3 Agricultural land At present some 11 percent (1.5 billion ha) of the globe’s land surface (13.4 billion ha) is used in crop production (arable land and land under permanent crops).
How much land do we have for agriculture?
Half of all habitable land is used for agriculture. This leaves only 37% for forests; 11% as shrubs and grasslands; 1% as freshwater coverage; and the remaining 1% – a much smaller share than many suspect – is built-up urban area which includes cities, towns, villages, roads and other human infrastructure.
Which land is used for agriculture?
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 “.
What can agricultural land be used for?
Agricultural land use Agricultural land denotes land sutiable for agricultural production, both crops and livestock. The Agricultural Land Classification grading system is also used by local planning authorities, developers and the public if development is poposed on agricultural land.
Which country has no farming?
According to a recent World Bank report, the countries with the smallest percentages of land used for agriculture today include Suriname, Greenland, Singapore, the Bahamas, the Seychelles, and Norway.
How much land is available on earth?
The total land surface area of Earth is about 57,308,738 square miles, of which about 33% is desert and about 24% is mountainous. Subtracting this uninhabitable 57% (32,665,981 mi 2) from the total land area leaves 24,642,757 square miles or 15.77 billion acres of habitable land.
Which crop has highest cultivated area in the world?
Rice was the most valuable agricultural crop in the world in 2016. It was third to sugarcane and maize (corn) in quantity produced.
How much land is used for agriculture?
Globally agricultural land area is approximately five billion hectares, or 38 percent of the global land surface. About one-third of this is used as cropland, while the remaining two-thirds consist of meadows and pastures) for grazing livestock.
What is the distribution of agricultural land?
Regional distribution of agricultural land use is a combination of local agri-climatic edaphic – soil –conditions, and socio-economic drivers. Averaged over the decade between 2007 and 2016, the largest share of agricultural land area was in Asia, accounting for 1.6 global hectares (gha) or 34 percent, followed by the Americas (1.2 gha, or 25 percent) and Africa (1.1 gha, 24 percent), with Europe and Oceania representing each about 9-10 percent of the total.
Which country has the most irrigated land?
The two countries with the largest irrigated cropland area were India and China, with about 68 Mha each, followed by the United States (27 Mha), Pakistan (20 Mha) and Iran (9 Mha).
Why is land important for agriculture?
Land – a notion which broadly includes climate, topography, vegetation, soils and other natural resources – is the basis for agriculture, and the interaction between these components is vital for determining the productivity and sustainability of agro-ecosystems. Especially in the face of climate change and variability, selecting the right land uses for given biophysical and socio-economic conditions is essential for minimizing land degradation, rehabilitating degraded land, ensuring the sustainable use of land resources, and maximizing resilience.
Which region has the most land area for irrigation?
In terms of irrigation capacity, the region with the largest land area equipped for irrigation over the past decade was by far Asia, with 237 mega hectares (mha), or 70 percent of the world’s total, followed by the Americas (52 mha, or 16 percent), Europe (26 mha, 8 percent), Africa (15 mha, 5 percent) and Oceania (3 mha, 1 percent).
