Global Ag Land Shift over Six Decade Period

Where the world’s farms are located has shifted over time per a recent USDA study on trends of global agricultural production over the past six decades. Rod Bain has more coming up on This Land of Ours.Listen to USDA Rod Bain’s program here.

Bain: Among the findings of a recent USDA study on transformation of agricultural production progression and shift towards sustainability over a six decade period landed Global AG grew 8% during that time frame. One aspect of this that study co-author at USDA research economist Keith Fugly found interesting was the primary location of this growth.

Fugly: The location of where that output is coming from has really shifted from what we call in the report the ‘Global North’ that’s kind of the high income countries of North America, Europe and then Asia Pacific, like Japan and Australia, and it’s shifted to the Global South, Latin America, Africa and the rest of Asia.

Bain: Irrigated area grew by over 2 times between 1961 and 2020.

Fugly: That uses about two-thirds of the world’s surface area. Irrigation uses about seventy percent of the world’s freshwater resources.

Bain: I’m Rod Bain reporting for the US Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC.