Agriculture is a major sector in many economies and agricultural activities provide food and revenue especially for developing countries.
Thailand - Rice plantation
Unfortunately, this kind of activities also can degrade natural resources. Poor farming practices cause soil erosion and loss of fertility. Efforts to increase productivity by using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and intensive irrigation have environmental costs and health impacts.
Too much chemical fertilizers can alter the chemistry of soil. Pesticide use and poisoning is common in developing countries. Thus, inappropriate use of inputs for agricultural production has far-reaching effects.
Agricultural land is also sometimes classified as irrigated and non-irrigated land. In arid and semi-arid countries agriculture is often confined to irrigated land, with very little farming possible in non-irrigated areas.
| Agricultural land (% land area) | % |
|---|---|
 URUGUAY | 82.6% |
 SOUTH AFRICA | 79.8% |
 NIGERIA | 77.7% |
 MONGOLIA | 72.7% |
 UKRAINE | 71.3% |
 GREAT BRITAIN | 70.8% |
 INDIA | 60.4% |
 CHINA | 56.2% |
 TURKEY | 50.1% |
 GERMANY | 47.9% |
 PAKISTAN | 40.7% |
 USA | 44.4% |
 PHILIPPINES | 41.7% |
 BRASIL | 33.8% |
 RUSSIA | 13.3% |
 CANADA | 6.9% |
 EGYPT | 3.8% |
source: worldbank.org
Data on agricultural land are very precious for studies on many perspectives concerning agricultural production, food security and for deriving cropping intensity among others uses.
Agricultural land indicator, along with land-use indicators, can also explain the environmental sustainability of countries' agricultural practices. Total land area does not include inland water bodies such as major rivers and lakes.
Personally, I would never have guessed the no. 1 position of Uruguay and Great Britain's 70.8% of Agricultural land. Also surprising, for me, that Egypt is 17th with 3.8%.
I think it would be positive to improve those percentages all over the world. Any idea how?
Feel free to share your opinions with a comment!
pic source: Pixabay