Lesotho - Permanent cropland (% of land area)

Permanent cropland (% of land area) in Lesotho was 0.132 as of 2018. Its highest value over the past 57 years was 0.132 in 2018, while its lowest value was 0.099 in 1961.

Definition: Permanent cropland is land cultivated with crops that occupy the land for long periods and need not be replanted after each harvest, such as cocoa, coffee, and rubber. This category includes land under flowering shrubs, fruit trees, nut trees, and vines, but excludes land under trees grown for wood or timber.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site.

See also:

Year Value
1961 0.099
1962 0.099
1963 0.099
1964 0.099
1965 0.099
1966 0.099
1967 0.099
1968 0.099
1969 0.099
1970 0.132
1971 0.132
1972 0.132
1973 0.132
1974 0.132
1975 0.132
1976 0.132
1977 0.132
1978 0.132
1979 0.132
1980 0.132
1981 0.132
1982 0.132
1983 0.132
1984 0.132
1985 0.132
1986 0.132
1987 0.132
1988 0.132
1989 0.132
1990 0.132
1991 0.132
1992 0.132
1993 0.132
1994 0.132
1995 0.132
1996 0.132
1997 0.132
1998 0.132
1999 0.132
2000 0.132
2001 0.132
2002 0.132
2003 0.132
2004 0.132
2005 0.132
2006 0.132
2007 0.132
2008 0.132
2009 0.132
2010 0.132
2011 0.132
2012 0.132
2013 0.132
2014 0.132
2015 0.132
2016 0.132
2017 0.132
2018 0.132

Development Relevance: Agricultural land covers more than one-third of the world's land area. Agricultural land constitutes only a part of any country's total area, which can include areas not suitable for agriculture, such as forests, mountains, and inland water bodies. Crops are divided into temporary and permanent crops. Permanent crops are sown or planted once, and then occupy the land for some years and need not be replanted after each annual harvest, such as cocoa, coffee and rubber. This category includes flowering shrubs, fruit trees, nut trees and vines, but excludes trees grown for wood or timber. Temporary crops are those which are both sown and harvested during the same agricultural year, sometimes more than once. Temporary crop land is used for crops with a less than one-year growing cycle and which must be newly sown or planted for further production after the harvest. Agriculture is still a major sector in many economies, and agricultural activities provide developing countries with food and revenue. But agricultural activities also can degrade natural resources. Poor farming practices can cause soil erosion and loss of soil fertility. Efforts to increase productivity by using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and intensive irrigation have environmental costs and health impacts. Excessive use of chemical fertilizers can alter the chemistry of soil. Pesticide poisoning is common in developing countries. And salinization of irrigated land diminishes soil fertility. Thus, inappropriate use of inputs for agricultural production has far-reaching effects. There is significant geographic variation in the availability of land considered suitable for agriculture. Increasing population and demand from other sectors place growing pressure on available resources. According to FAO, the world's cultivated area has grown by 12 percent over the last 50 years. The global irrigated area has doubled over the same period, accounting for most of the net increase in cultivated land. Agriculture already uses 11 percent of the world's land surface for crop production. It also makes use of 70 percent of all water withdrawn from aquifers, streams and lakes. Agricultural policies have primarily benefitted farmers with productive land and access to water, bypassing the majority of small-scale producers who are still locked in a poverty trap of high vulnerability, land degradation and climatic uncertainty. Land resources are central to agriculture and rural development, and are intrinsically linked to global challenges of food insecurity and poverty, climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as degradation and depletion of natural resources that affect the livelihoods of millions of rural people across the world. In many industrialized countries, agricultural land is subject to zoning regulations. In the context of zoning, agricultural land (or more properly agriculturally zoned land) refers to plots that may be used for agricultural activities, regardless of the physical type or quality of land.

Limitations and Exceptions: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) tries to impose standard definitions and reporting methods, but complete consistency across countries and over time is not possible. Thus, data on agricultural land in different climates may not be comparable. For example, permanent pastures are quite different in nature and intensity in African countries and dry Middle Eastern countries. True comparability of the data is limited by variations in definitions, statistical methods, and quality of data. Countries use different definitions land use. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the primary compiler of the data, occasionally adjusts its definitions of land use categories and revises earlier data. Because the data reflect changes in reporting procedures as well as actual changes in land use, apparent trends should be interpreted cautiously. Satellite images show land use that differs from that of ground-based measures in area under cultivation and type of land use. Moreover, land use data in some countries (India is an example) are based on reporting systems designed for collecting tax revenue. With land taxes no longer a major source of government revenue, the quality and coverage of land use data have declined.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The data on Permanent cropland and land area are collected by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations from official national sources through the questionnaire are supplemented with information from official secondary data sources. The secondary sources cover official country data from websites of national ministries, national publications and related country data reported by various international organizations.

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Environment Indicators

Sub-Topic: Land use