15
COMCEC Agriculture Outlook 2019
Table 5 provides data on magnitudes of total land, agricultural land, permanent crops land and
permanent meadows, and pastures in the OIC member countries as well as in the world. OIC
member countries’ total land area of 2.94 billion hectares, equals to22,60 percent of the world’s
total land area. Almost 1.37 billion hectares, representing 46,5 percent of this total land is used
as agricultural land by the OIC member countries. The OIC’s agricultural area share in total
land area is higher than theworld average of 37,4 percent.
In the OIC, out of these 1.37 billion hectares of agricultural area, 310 million hectares are
arable land, 64million hectares are reserved for permanent crops, and around 1 billion hectares
are used as permanent meadows and pastures. Most of OICmember countries’ agricultural area,
(72.7 percent), consists of permanent meadows and pastures. This is in line with the general
distribution in theworldwhere 67 percent of agricultural area consists of permanent meadows
and pastures. When compared to EU countries, where 60 percent of the agricultural land is
arable, 33 percent consists of permanent meadows and pasture and 6 percent is allocated to
permanent crops, the OIC member countries as a whole have a very hi gh level of permanent
meadows and pastures, but very low share of arable land.
Table 6 The Shares of Land Use in OIC Sub-Regions, 2016
OIC Sub-region Land area Agricultural
Area
Arable land Permanent
Crops
Permanent
Meadows
and Pastures
African Group (%) 38.2 34.98 19.12 13.13 41.31
Arab Group (%) 26.13 26.02 33.54 27.26 23.61
Asian Group (%) 35.67 39.0 47.34 59.41 35.09
OIC Total (%) 100 100 100 100 100
Source: FAOSTAT
Table 6 reveals that Asian and African Groups constitute 39 and 34.98 percent of the total
agricultural area of the OIC. They are followed by the Arab Group with 26.02 percent. African
Group has the highest share in permanent meadows and pastures of OIC with 41.31 percent.
Asian Group has the highest share in the arable and permanent crop areal with 47.34 and
59.41 percent,respectively.
At the individual country level, Kazakhstanwith 15.4 percent, Saudi Arabiawith 12.3 percent,
Sudanwith 7.7 percent, Nigeria with5.0 percent, and Indonesia with4.0 percent, own significant
portion of OIC’s agricultural land. Regarding the arable land, the country ranking list changes
slightly, and Nigeria becomes the first country which has the highest share of arable land with
11.1 percent in the OIC. Pakistan Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Turkey are the following countries
which share OIC’s total arable landwith 9.9 percent, 9.6 percent, 7.7 percent, and 6.7 percent,
respectively. Nonetheless, most of the OIC member countries’ agricultural areamainly consists
of permanent meadows and pastures. (Annex 17).
2.2 Productions
The OIC member countries pursue a wide range of crop and livestock production systems as
they are on different agro-ecological zones, have different agricultural infrastructures,
production and consumption habits. Hence, a large variety of agricultural products are grown in
the OIC.