Agricultural land

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

• arable land (also known as 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.

Area

Under the FAO's definitions above, agricultural land covers 38.4% of the world's land area as of 2011 and in 2023 4.80 billion hectares (ha), down 2 percent, or 0.07 billion ha, compared with 2000. In 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).

• 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 pastures: 33,585,676 square kilometers or 12,967,502 square miles
• Permanent crops: 1,537,338 square kilometers or 593,570 square miles

In 2022, the global agricultural land area was 4.78 billion hectares (ha), down from 4.79 billion hectares in 2021. One-third of the total agricultural land was cropland (1.58 billion ha in 2021), which increased by 6 percent (0.09 billion ha).

In 2023 Asia had the largest share of the global cropland area in 2023 (37%), followed by the Americas (23%), Africa (20%), Europe (18%) and Oceania (2%). Approximately 30% of global cropland and permanent meadows and pastures can be found in three countries; 12% of global permanent meadows and pastures belonged to China, 10% to Australia and 8% to the United States of America. For the same year, the largest contributors to global cropland were India (11%), the United States of America (10%) and China (8%)

Asia had the largest share of the global cropland area in 2021 (37 percent), followed by the Americas (24 percent), Africa (19 percent), Europe (18 percent) and Oceania (2 percent). There were differences in cropland expansion in the different regions during this period – Oceania and Africa both had rapid growth in cropland area (33 percent and 27 percent), while Asia and the Americas had more moderate growth (4 percent and 2 percent). The cropland area of Europe declined between 2000 and 2021 by 5 percent. As a result, the cropland area of Africa overtook that of Europe in 2018.

Approximately 30 percent of global cropland and permanent meadows and pastures can be found in three countries. In 2021, 12 percent of global permanent meadows and pastures belonged to China, 10 percent to Australia, and 8 percent to the United States of America. For the same year, the largest share of global cropland was in India (11 percent), followed by the United States of America (10 percent) and China (8 percent).

Cropland area per capita decreased in all regions between 2000 and 2021 as population increased faster than the cropland area. The world average declined by 18 percent to 0.20 ha per capita in 2021; the decrease was the largest in Africa (−25 percent, to0.21 ha per capita), followed by the Americas and Asia (−17 percent each, to 0.37 ha per capita and 0.13 ha per capita, respectively), Europe and Oceania (−7 percent each, to 0.39 ha per capita and 0.77 ha per capita, respectively). The countries with the highest cropland area per capita are Kazakhstan, Australia and Canada, due to vast areas of land available.

Globally, the total amount of permanent pasture according to the FAO has been in decline since 1998, in part due to a decrease of wool production in favor of synthetic fibers (such as polyester) and cotton.

The decrease of permanent pasture, however, 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 to 2012 (comprising 7.34 million acres (29,700 km²) converted to agriculture, and 4.36 million acres (17,600 km²) converted from agriculture).

Source: Helgi Library, World Bank, FAOSTAT