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
Excellent analysis, my friend and he gives us an idea of agriculture in the world! Thank you @marlon6
thanks, @serkagan
there should be more awareness about these problems
Agricultural lands should be protected by using natural manure such as cow dung , earth worm and also natural pesticides all those have no chemical reaction, these are good for land as well as human being.
right, I agree with you @rafique1953
yeah you are absolutly right,as pakistan is totally dependent on agricultural activities and and usually for increasing products area is increased and deforestation destroy the natural habitas its totally a blunder and in future we are going to face the music...
Could not agree more with you brother.
thanks for your comment @mhsrg
80% of the population in South Africa (Ranked 2nd) does not have access to this land. The land is in the hands of white farmers who are beneficiaries of Apartheid.
There is currently a land policy debate in the country which is said to be causing uncertatinty. Question is, as an investor why would you not invest in a country with such great potential?
thanks, kgbwithadash. Your comment contributes to explain why this is an important topic worldwide and also why statistics need to be interpreted
One way to increase efficiency in land use would be to create urban farms in high rise buildings. Imagine a 20 floor high rise with a different crop on each floor.
Plant crops could be grown in a hydroponic system with their roots sitting in nutrient rich water that continuously flows over them. Photosynthesis could be achieved by solar powered lighting. The indoor system would eliminate the need for pesticides so all food could be grown organically. If this seems far fetched it shouldn't because legal cannabis producers in Canada are basically doing exactly that on a smaller scale.
To take this a step further the high rise could be located centrally in a city and host a grocery store on its main floor. That way food crops could be grown "in house" and then transported to the grocery store below without the need for supply chains and transportation. The system would be more efficient in countless ways and would significantly reduce carbon emissions.
Small cities could have one urban farm to support the population and large cities could have many strategically placed farms to make locally grown food accessible to everyone. The idea needs some tweaking I'm sure but this systems would solve a lot of issues.
sounds like a magnificent way to handle this problem, I hope we will see something like this all over the world during our lifespan
Right on! I've considered this as well. Could be aquaponics too, with fish say on every other floor (or however it works out for nutrient density). Catch rain from the roof, and gravity feed the water down the system. It's so feasible i can taste it. Could integrate composted/ pasteurized black and greywater for nutrients too. So many possibilities. Come on self-sufficient cities! Stewards of their own food supplies!
Yes I agree. I actually believe that there are places that use the system you mentioned - with fish living in indoor ponds. The fish waste adds nutrients to the water which gets cycled back to the plants. Its like a self sustaining ecosystem.
Yeah - self sustaining cities! I look forward to the day they become a reality
I really enjoyed this post! Thank you.
It sparked more thoughts that fit into a single comment, so I wrote a blog post in response.
excellent! I wish there could be more debate on this topic
I agree with you.Lots of our agricultural lands have been destroyed.If we don't increase those percentage it will become a huge problem for us.People in developing countries are also using fertilizers in a very wrong manner.That also causes a lot of problem to the nature as well as consumers.
and once lands are destroyed, years and years are needed to have them back to production. Thanks for your comment, @gioani
Thank YOU! Thanks for being a blessing and sharing!
thanks for taking the time to read my post, @pjcswart
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It's really helpful!