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31-520: The valley was flooded for centuries by the waters of the Orontes River, which rendered it a swamp. The "Ghab project", beginning in the 1950s, drained the valley to make it habitable, arable land , providing an extra 41,000 hectares (160 sq mi) of irrigated farmland. The valley separates the al-Ansariyah mountains in the west from the Zawiyah mountain range and the plateau region to

62-430: 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). In 2021, the global agricultural land area was 4.79 billion hectares (ha), down 2 percent, or 0.09 billion ha compared with 2000. One-third of the total agricultural land was cropland (1.58 billion ha in 2021), which increased by 6 percent (0.09 billion ha). Asia had

93-462: Is 40 metres (130 ft) high, and 200 metres (660 ft) long and holds 65,000,000 cubic metres (85,000,000 cu yd) of water. The Zeyzoun Dam , built in 1996, was 32 metres (105 ft) high and held a maximum of 71,000,000 cubic metres (93,000,000 cu yd) of water; it failed in June 2002, leading to the deaths of 22 people and the displacement of over 2,000 as a large hole opened in

124-403: Is an open-air none recycled water hydroponics relationship. The below described circumstances are not in perspective, have limited duration, and have a tendency to accumulate trace materials in soil that either there or elsewhere cause deoxygenation. The use of vast amounts of fertilizer may have unintended consequences for the environment by devastating rivers, waterways, and river endings through

155-585: Is as little as €1,500–2,000 (£1,260–1,680) per hectare (ha) (£1,260–1,680). This is comparatively inexpensive. Poor-quality farmland in France and Spain is sold at no lower than €10,000/ha. The average Russian farm measures 150 hectares (370 acres). The most prevalent crops in Russia are wheat , barley , corn , rice , sugar beet , soy beans , sunflower , potatoes and vegetables . Russian farmers harvested roughly 85–90 million tonnes of wheat annually in

186-489: Is generally synonymous with both farmland or cropland , as well as pasture or rangeland . 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: 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

217-413: 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

248-583: Is located between the Ghab Plain, and Amouk Plain . This is an agriculturally prosperous enclave just west of the town of Idlib . Many ancient archaeological sites are located there. 35°35′13″N 36°21′22″E  /  35.587°N 36.356°E  / 35.587; 36.356 Arable land Arable land (from the Latin : arabilis , "able to be ploughed ") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops. Alternatively, for

279-462: Is not arable according to the FAO definition above includes: Other non-arable land includes land that is not suitable for any agricultural use. Land that is not arable, in the sense of lacking capability or suitability for cultivation for crop production, has one or more limitations – a lack of sufficient freshwater for irrigation, stoniness, steepness, adverse climate, excessive wetness with

310-649: 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. 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)

341-434: Is the seawater greenhouse , which desalinates water through evaporation and condensation using solar energy as the only energy input. This technology is optimized to grow crops on desert land close to the sea. The use of artifices does not make the land arable. Rock still remains rock, and shallow – less than 6 feet (1.8 metres) – turnable soil is still not considered toilable. The use of artifice

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372-416: Is unsuitable for cultivation, yet such land has value for grazing of livestock. In British Columbia, Canada, 41 percent of the provincial Agricultural Land Reserve area is unsuitable for the production of cultivated crops, but is suitable for uncultivated production of forage usable by grazing livestock. Similar examples can be found in many rangeland areas elsewhere. Land incapable of being cultivated for

403-558: Is vulnerable to land degradation and some types of un-arable land can be enriched to create useful land. Climate change and biodiversity loss , are driving pressure on arable land. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in 2013, the world's arable land amounted to 1.407 billion hectares, out of a total of 4.924 billion hectares of land used for agriculture. Agricultural land that

434-462: The United States cropland increased by 2.98 million acres from 2008 to 2012 (comprising 7.34 million acres (29,700 km ) converted to agriculture, and 4.36 million acres (17,600 km ) converted from agriculture). Source: Helgi Library, World Bank, FAOSTAT Prices and rents for agricultural land depend on supply and demand. Prices/rents rise when the supply of farmland on

465-679: 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 capitain 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 haper capita and 0.77 ha per capita, respectively). The countries with

496-437: The accumulation of non-degradable toxins and nitrogen-bearing molecules that remove oxygen and cause non-aerobic processes to form. Examples of infertile non-arable land being turned into fertile arable land include: One of the impacts of land degradation is that it can diminish the natural capacity of the land to store and filter water leading to water scarcity . Human-induced land degradation and water scarcity are increasing

527-491: The amount of land that is potentially cultivable. A more concise definition appearing in the Eurostat glossary similarly refers to actual rather than potential uses: "land worked (ploughed or tilled) regularly, generally under a system of crop rotation ". In Britain, arable land has traditionally been contrasted with pasturable land such as heaths , which could be used for sheep-rearing but not as farmland . Arable land

558-474: 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

589-436: The desert, hydroponics , fertilizer, nitrogen fertilizer, pesticides , reverse osmosis water processors, PET film insulation or other insulation against heat and cold, digging ditches and hills for protection against the wind, and installing greenhouses with internal light and heat for protection against the cold outside and to provide light in cloudy areas. Such modifications are often prohibitively expensive. An alternative

620-719: The east. It is 63 kilometres (39 mi) long and 12.1 kilometres (7.5 mi) wide. Before its drainage, the Ghab was the center of the catfish ( Silurus glanis ) ( sallōr or samak aswad ) fisheries of the Orontes valley. The Ghab project began in 1953 and made the area suitable for agriculture, by deploying new irrigation systems. The system included barrages , canal networks for irrigation and canal networks for drainage. Large barrages were built in Mahardah , Zayzun , Qarqur and other villages. The dam at Mahardah , built in 1961,

651-463: The embankment and flooded 80 square kilometres (31 sq mi) of the countryside downstream. Other advantages of the Ghab project were the improvements in the systems of communication through the building of road and rail networks, previously not possible due to the swamps. In addition, malaria decreased because there was no longer stagnant water. Northeast of the Ghab Plain is found another smaller plain, known as al-Ruj Plain (Rouj basin). It

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682-626: The highest croplandarea 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

713-405: The impracticality of drainage, excessive salts, or a combination of these, among others. Although such limitations may preclude cultivation, and some will in some cases preclude any agricultural use, large areas unsuitable for cultivation may still be agriculturally productive. For example, United States NRCS statistics indicate that about 59 percent of US non-federal pasture and unforested rangeland

744-514: The largest share of the global cropland area in 2021 (37 percent), followedby 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 aresult,

775-405: The levels of risk for agricultural production and ecosystem services. Examples of fertile arable land being turned into infertile land include: Agricultural land Agricultural land is typically land devoted to agriculture , the systematic and controlled use of other forms of life —particularly the rearing of livestock and production of crops —to produce food for humans . It

806-416: The market reduces. Landholders then put more land on the market – causing prices to fall. Conversely, land prices/rents fall when the demand for agricultural land declines because of falls in the returns from holding and using it. The immediate triggers for falls in land demand might be reductions in the demand for farm produce or in relevant government subsidies and tax reliefs. The cost of Russian farmland

837-428: 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

868-402: The production of crops can sometimes be converted to arable land. New arable land makes more food and can reduce starvation . This outcome also makes a country more self-sufficient and politically independent, because food importation is reduced. Making non-arable land arable often involves digging new irrigation canals and new wells, aqueducts, desalination plants, planting trees for shade in

899-478: The purposes of agricultural statistics, the term often has a more precise definition: Arable land is the land under temporary agricultural crops (multiple-cropped areas are counted only once), temporary meadows for mowing or pasture , land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow (less than five years). The abandoned land resulting from shifting cultivation is not included in this category. Data for 'Arable land' are not meant to indicate

930-614: The years around 2010. Russia exported most to Egypt , Turkey and Iran in 2012; China was a significant export market as well. The average yield from the Krasnodar region was between 4 and 5 tonnes per ha, while the Russian average was only 2t/ha. The Basic Element Group , 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). In 2013, Ukraine

961-480: Was ranked third in corn production and sixth in wheat production. It was the main supplier of corn , wheat , and rape to Europe, 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. UkrLandFarming PLC produces, from 650,000 hectares (1.6m acres), corn, wheat, barley, sugar beet, and sunflowers. Until 2014,

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