Historical dataset showing Saudi Arabia arable land by year from 1961 to 2022.

Saudi Arabia SA: Arable Land data was reported at 3,502,000.000 ha in 2015. This stayed constant from the previous number of 3,502,000.000 ha for 2014. Saudi Arabia SA: Arable Land data is updated yearly, averaging 3,050,000.000 ha from Dec 1961 (Median) to 2015, with 55 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 3,672,000.000 ha in 1993 and a record low of 1,140,000.000 ha in 1961. Saudi Arabia SA: Arable Land data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Saudi Arabia – Table SA.World Bank: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Arable land (in hectares) includes land defined by the FAO as land under temporary crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow. Land abandoned as a result of shifting cultivation is excluded.; ; Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site.; ;

Saudi Arabia SA: Agricultural Land: % of Land Area data was reported at 80.778 % in 2015. This stayed constant from the previous number of 80.778 % for 2014. Saudi Arabia SA: Agricultural Land: % of Land Area data is updated yearly, averaging 52.626 % from Dec 1961 (Median) to 2015, with 55 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 80.848 % in 2003 and a record low of 40.085 % in 1961. Saudi Arabia SA: Agricultural Land: % of Land Area data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Saudi Arabia – Table SA.World Bank: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Agricultural land refers to the share of land area that is arable, under permanent crops, and under permanent pastures. Arable land includes land defined by the FAO as land under temporary crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow. Land abandoned as a result of shifting cultivation is excluded. Land under permanent crops 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. Permanent pasture is land used for five or more years for forage, including natural and cultivated crops.; ; Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site.; Weighted average;

Forecast: Arable Land Area in Saudi Arabia 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Saudi Arabia SA: Arable Land: % of Land Area data was reported at 1.629 % in 2015. This stayed constant from the previous number of 1.629 % for 2014. Saudi Arabia SA: Arable Land: % of Land Area data is updated yearly, averaging 1.419 % from Dec 1961 (Median) to 2015, with 55 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1.708 % in 1993 and a record low of 0.530 % in 1961. Saudi Arabia SA: Arable Land: % of Land Area data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Saudi Arabia – Table SA.World Bank: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Arable land includes land defined by the FAO as land under temporary crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow. Land abandoned as a result of shifting cultivation is excluded.; ; Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site.; Weighted average;

Forecast: Arable Land and Permanent Crops in Saudi Arabia 2022 - 2026 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Saudi Arabia SA: Arable Land: Hectares per Person data was reported at 0.111 ha in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 0.114 ha for 2014. Saudi Arabia SA: Arable Land: Hectares per Person data is updated yearly, averaging 0.195 ha from Dec 1961 (Median) to 2015, with 55 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.270 ha in 1961 and a record low of 0.102 ha in 2013. Saudi Arabia SA: Arable Land: Hectares per Person data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Saudi Arabia – Table SA.World Bank: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Arable land (hectares per person) includes land defined by the FAO as land under temporary crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow. Land abandoned as a result of shifting cultivation is excluded.; ; Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site.; Weighted Average;

A study on six 50 ha agricultural fields was conducted to investigate the effect of conservation tillage practices on the long-term (1990–2016) changes in the soil organic carbon (SOC) content of the topsoil layers (0–10 cm) of agricultural fields. The experimental fields were selected from the 49 fields of the Tawdeehiya Arable Farm (TAF), located 200 kilometers southeast of Riyadh, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Data sets from laboratory determined SOC and the corresponding Landsat images generated vegetation indices, namely, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Bare Soil Index (BSI), were utilized for the prediction of SOC using multivariate regression techniques. Long-term changes in the SOC content of the experimental fields, as a result of different tillage practices, were also studied. The developed SOC prediction models exhibited high accuracy indicated by R2 values ranging from 0.73 to 0.85, RMSE values of 0.34 to 0.85 g kg-1 and P-values of less than 0.0001. The cross-validation results (R2 of 0.61–0.70, RMSE value of 0.34–0.85 g kg-1 and P-values of less than 0.0001) confirmed the high accuracy of the developed SOC prediction models. Results also revealed that the change in the SOC content was clearly associated with soil tillage practices. On the average, 76% of the all agricultural fields in the experimental farm showed a decrease of up to 24 g kg-1 in their SOC content after 10 years (1990–2000) of continuous conventional tillage practices. On the other hand, an average increase of up to 37 g kg-1 in the SOC content was observed in 88% of the studied fields at the end of the study period (2016), where conservation tillage was a continous and consistent practice in the experimental farm.

We use roughly half of global habitable land for agriculture. But how much of the total land area is utilized for agriculture across the world? In the map here we see the share of total (both habitable and non-habitable) land area used for agriculture.

There is large variability in the share of land a given country uses for agriculture. Allocation ranges from less than ten percent, for example the Scandinavian region, to close to 80 percent in some countries (including the UK, Uruguay, South Africa, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia). It's important to note that this metric includes both land used for arable (cropland) production and pasture land for livestock grazing; this means that agriculture can consume a large share of land area, even in arid and semi-arid regions where extensive arable farming is not possible. We will explore this difference in cropland and pastureland in the following section.

If we view the map in "chart" mode, we see how the allocation of land to agriculture has changed over time across the global regions. The share of land used for agriculture has been slowly increasing across most of the world's regions over the past few decades. However, land use across Europe and Central Asia- particularly within the European Union (EU) zone- and North America has been declining.