TB4_5

4.5 Key agricultural inputs See Table 4.5 here

About the data

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) collects data on agricultural inputs through annual questionnaires sent to participating governments. The FAO attempts to impose standard definitions and reporting methods, but exact consistency across countries and over time is not possible.

Comparative measures of the inputs to agriculture help in assessing differences in productivity and degree of modernization in the sector. However, levels of inputs and rates of application vary from country to country and over time depending on the type of crops, the climate and soils, and the production process used.

The FAO’s definition of arable land includes land that is not under active cultivation. The calculation of arable land per capita is based on World Bank population estimates (see table 2.1). Available data on irrigated land do not distinguish the frequency, quantity, or method of irrigation. Fertilizer consumption measures the quantity of plant nutrients available for direct application and is calculated as production minus exports plus imports. Traditional nutrients—animal and plant manures—are not included. It should be noted that FAO measures of world exports and imports do not balance because of differences in reporting dates, time reference periods, and treatment of intermediate products.

Data on the labor force in agriculture should be used with caution. In many countries much of the agricultural employment is informal and unrecorded.

Definitions

• Arable land includes both land defined by the FAO as arable and land under permanent crops. The FAO defines arable land as land that is 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 (less than five years). Land abandoned as a result of shifting cultivation is not included.

• Irrigated land is the area purposely provided with water, including land irrigated by controlled flooding.

• Fertilizer consumption measures the quantity of plant nutrients used per unit of arable land. Fertilizer products cover nitrogenous, potash, and phosphate fertilizers (including ground rock phosphate). The time reference for fertilizer consumption is the crop year (July through June).

• Farm machinery gives the number of wheel and crawler tractors (excluding garden tractors) in use in agriculture at the end of the calendar year specified or during the first quarter of the following year.

• Share of labor force in agriculture is the proportion of the total labor force recorded as working in International Standard Industrial Classification, rev. 2, major division 1 (agriculture, hunting, forestry, and fishing).

Data sources

Data on arable land, irrigation, and farm machinery are published in the FAO’s Production Yearbook 1994. Data on fertilizer consumption are published in the FAO’s Fertilizer Yearbook. The FAO makes data available to the World Bank in electronic files that may contain more recent information than the published sources. Data on the share of the labor force in agriculture come from the International Labour Organisation’s Yearbook of Labour Statistics.