9
Table 4.1. Land Use in Agriculture
Agricultural
Area
Cultivated Area
Permanent
Pasture Arable Land
Permanent
Crops
Million
Hectares
%
(1)
Million
Hectares
%
(2)
Million
Hectares
%
(2)
Million
Hectares
%
(2)
COMCEC
Countries
1401 43.7 290 20.7 49 3.4 1076 76.8
Developing
Countries
3846 38.7 1071 27.9 121 3.1 2671 69.5
World 4932 37.9 1411 28.6 143 2.9 3378 68.5
COMCEC
as % of:
World 28.4 20.6 34.3 31.9
Developing
Countries
36.4 27.1 40.5 40.3
Source: FAOSTAT, 2007
(1) % of total land area; (2) % of agricultural area
Agricultural area is the sum of arable, permanent crops and permanent pastures land areas.
Arable land is the land under temporary crops, temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under
market and kitchen gardens, and land temporarily in fallow.
Permanent crop land is the area cultivated with crops that occupy the land for long periods and that do not
need to be replanted after each harvest. This does not include woodland and forests.
However, the arable land area of the COMCEC Countries amounted to only 290
million hectares, corresponding to 20.7% of their agricultural area, and accounted for
27.1% of the arable land of the developing countries and 20.6% of that of the world.
Thus, the percentage of the arable land of the COMCEC Countries in their total
agricultural area was lower than that of the developing countries (27.9%) and the world
average (28.6%). In contrast, the permanent crops land of the COMCEC Countries (49
million hectares) accounted for 34.3% of the total permanent crops land in the world
and 40.5% of that of the developing countries. Although the permanent crops land of
the COMCEC Countries accounted for only 3.4% of their total agricultural area, this
ratio was slightly higher than that of the developing countries (3.1%) and the world
average (2.9%). As shown in Table 4.1, the bulk of the agricultural area in the
COMCEC Countries (76.8% or 1.1 billion hectares) is permanent pastureland used for
grazing of livestock.
Land use in agriculture in the COMCEC Member Countries reflects huge
differences at both the individual country level and sub-regional levels. With large