DATA Download historical data for 20 million indicators using your browser. Already a user? Trading Economics members can view, download and compare data from nearly countries, including more than 20 million economic indicators, exchange rates, government bond yields, stock indexes and commodity prices.
Features Questions? Contact us Already a Member? It allows API clients to download millions of rows of historical data, to query our real-time economic calendar, subscribe to updates and receive quotes for currencies, commodities, stocks and bonds. Yet these processes are extremely expensive and energy intensive, making them untenable in the context of reduced oil reserves and the current lack of a viable sustainable alternative energy source.
Furthermore, the use of these methods alone will not result in the creation of enough arable land to sustain increased demand. Conservation of existing arable land requires policies which monitor the usage and conversion of agricultural land to ensure its efficiency and to hedge against its conversion to industrial or residential property. Conservation also includes measures to reduce the over-reliance on chemical pesticides and fertilisers which harm the carrying capacity of the land, as well as other measures which minimise the desertification, erosion and salinisation that is occurring in some areas due to over exploitation — or misuse.
The best way to increase production, without putting undue demand on existing arable land, or energy-intensively capturing arable land is to address the human factors which are placing strains on arable land resources. In , Harvard Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, said that all food security problems were political and found that food security in developing nations could be addressed by reforms to wages, distribution, storage and democracy.
This advice holds true today. Dwindling arable acreage can be addressed through reform packages which focus on the governance issues which affect arable land availability such as protection, foreign ownership and efficient usage.
It is also suggested that the practice of aiding small-scale subsistence farmers in developing countries is a waste of arable land, which can be better cultivated when aggregated and managed by a large corporate agribusinesses, such as is occurring in Brazil. However this runs contrary to the predominant aid perspective which emphasizes individual capacity-building rather than large scale enterprise.
Discovering that the supply of arable land worldwide is not just adequate, but that it could be used to meet growing demand in the future does not mean that the availability of arable land will not be a major factor in meeting future food security. The barriers to expanding arable land resources are many and varied, with the real challenge for arable land resources being to find a balance between competing interests and uses and finite resources. The regions facing a shortage of arable land in the future include some of the most developed and populous nations in the world.
The hope is that these nations will have the resources as well as the incentive to explore new ways of increasing productive capacity. Similarly, nations with the greatest potential for arable land cultivation are predominantly located in the developing world.
It is the responsibility of global governance bodies to ensure that these resources are not exploited, but rather developed to the benefit of both the individual country and the world.
Print Email. Download PDF Key Points Population growth and changing consumption habits will create a considerable degree of additional demand which will in turn place pressure on arable land resources. Arable land scarcity is the result of a range of human and climatic factors including degradation, climate change, soil constraints, urban encroachment and unequal land distribution.
There currently remains some 2. The solutions to addressing the availability of arable land are three-fold: the production of more arable land, increase in the productive capacity of existing arable land and the conservation of arable land in order to prevent degradation. Despite more than an adequate supply of arable land to meet future demand, land availability will continue to be a major factor in meeting future food security because of the need to find a balance between competing interests and uses and finite resources.
Analysis Land is absolutely essential to agriculture and therefore the relationship between levels of arable land and food security merits serious consideration. Regions Facing Shortages At present some 12 per cent over 1. Conclusion Discovering that the supply of arable land worldwide is not just adequate, but that it could be used to meet growing demand in the future does not mean that the availability of arable land will not be a major factor in meeting future food security.
Arable land worldwide has decreased by nearly one-third since , because of re-forestation, soil erosion, and desertification caused by global climate change. Arable Land By Country Here are the 10 countries with the most arable land: India ,, hectares United States ,, hectares Russia ,, hectares China ,, hectares Brazil 80,, hectares Australia 46,, hectares Canada 43,, hectares Argentina 39,, hectares Nigeria 34,, hectares Ukraine 32,, hectares.
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