{"id":1450031,"date":"2024-01-11T04:20:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T09:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1450031"},"modified":"2024-01-11T04:20:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T09:20:00","slug":"how-much-of-the-world-is-covered-by-croplands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/how-much-of-the-world-is-covered-by-croplands\/1450031\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Of The World Is Covered By Croplands?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Much Of The World Is Covered By Croplands?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Over the last 50 years, the world\u2019s human population worldwide has grown exponentially.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And, as Visual Capitalist’s Adam Symington details below,<\/a> this population explosion brought greater food production needs with it<\/strong>, through\u00a0livestock breeding<\/a>, cropland expansion, and other increases in land use.<\/p>\n

But how evenly is this land distributed globally?<\/strong> In this graphic,\u00a0Adam Symington<\/strong>\u00a0maps global croplands as of 2019, based on a\u00a02021 scientific paper<\/a>\u00a0published in\u00a0Nature<\/em>\u00a0by Peter Potapov et al.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The World\u2019s Croplands<\/h2>\n

Croplands are defined as land areas used to cultivate herbaceous crops for human consumption, forage, and biofuel. At the start of the 21st century, the world\u2019s croplands spread across\u00a01,142 million hectares<\/strong>\u00a0(Mha) of land.<\/p>\n

Some of these croplands have since been abandoned, lost in natural disasters, or repurposed for housing, irrigation, and other infrastructural needs.<\/p>\n

Despite this, the creation of new croplands increased overall cropland cover by around 9% and the net primary (crop) production by 25%.<\/p>\n

Africa and South America Lead Croplands Expansion<\/h2>\n

In 2019, croplands occupied 1,244 Mha of land worldwide, with the largest regions being Europe and North Asia and Southwest Asia at around 20% of total cover each.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, even though Africa (17%) and South America (9%) held lower percentages of the world\u2019s croplands, they saw the highest expansion in croplands since 2000:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

South American nations including\u00a0Argentina<\/strong>,\u00a0Brazil<\/strong>, and\u00a0Uruguay<\/strong>\u00a0witnessed a steep rise in crop production between 2000 and 2007. Agricultural\u00a0growth<\/a>\u00a0in the region can be attributed to both modern agricultural technology adoption and the production of globally demanded crops like soybeans.<\/p>\n

A similar\u00a0expansion in croplands<\/a>\u00a0within Sub-Saharan African countries at the start of the 21st century continues to persist today, as producers ramp up crop production for both exports and to try and alleviate food scarcity.<\/p>\n

Much of these the world\u2019s croplands were once forests, drylands, plains, and lowlands. And this loss in\u00a0green cover<\/a>\u00a0is clearly seen across Africa, South America, and parts of Asia.<\/p>\n

However, some regions have also witnessed tree plantations, orchards, and aquaculture replacing former croplands. One such example is Vietnam\u2019s\u00a0Mekong Delta<\/a>, and indeed Southeast Asia was the only region that saw an overall decline in cropland cover from 2000 to 2019.<\/p>\n

Moving Towards Sustainable Agriculture<\/h2>\n

The expansion of croplands has also come at a cost, destroying\u00a0large stretches of forest<\/a>\u00a0cover, and further contributing to wildlife fragmentation and greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

However, hope for more sustainable development is not lost. Nations are finding ways to\u00a0improve agricultural productivity<\/a>\u00a0in ways that free up land.<\/p>\n

As global demand for food continues to increase, agricultural expansion and intensification seem imminent. But innovation, and a changing climate, may elevate alternative solutions in the future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 01\/10\/2024 – 23:20<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/how-much-world-covered-croplands<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How Much Of The World Is Covered By Croplands? Over the last 50 years, the world\u2019s human population worldwide has grown exponentially. And, as Visual…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1450031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450031\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}