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Countries with the Lowest Percentage of Arable Land

Name the countries with the lowest percentage of land that can be farmed. Hint: Think of countries with the most urban area, mountain, desert, forest, etc...

Source: World Bank

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No data exists for Monaco and the Vatican

Quiz by cuotak

Last updated: September 13, 2018

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%	Country
0.09	Djibouti
0.12	Oman
0.33	Seychelles
0.37	Mongolia
0.42	Suriname
0.43	Kuwait
0.44	Mauritania
0.45	United Arab Emirates

%	Country
0.65	Montenegro
0.66	Papua New Guinea
0.70	Botswana
0.71	Solomon Islands
0.79	Singapore
0.80	Bahamas
0.95	Brunei
0.97	Namibia

%	Country
0.98	Libya
1.13	Qatar
1.21	Iceland
1.26	Gabon
1.52	Colombia
1.61	Rep. of the Congo
1.63	Saudi Arabia
1.64	Vanuatu

cpgatbyu

+12

level 75

Sep 13, 2018

Also, no data for Nauru, Kosovo, South Sudan, and Tuvalu.

sillie

level 80

Sep 13, 2018

Should be added to the list. I guessed two of those.

stubart409

level 57

Oct 6, 2018

I thought Nauru would be on this list for sure.

APHill

+18

level 70

Sep 13, 2018

"No data exists for Monaco and the Vatican." So what do I do? I guess those first, of course!

Jerry928

level 71

Sep 13, 2018

They are obviously top of the list at 0.00%, so should they just be put there?

someone2018

level 63

Sep 15, 2018

The header is misleading when it says "Think of countries with the most urban area".

unknown2000

level 42

Oct 6, 2018

Singapore.

Jerry928

level 71

Sep 13, 2018

Montenegro seems hard to believe; just had a look at googlemaps on sattelite view and there seems to be way more than 0.65% being farmed there.

Djilas

level 72

Sep 21, 2018

https://www.bfn.de/fileadmin/MDB/documents/ina/vortraege/2010-Farmland-Montenegro-HNVF-Vilm-june2010-final.pdf A presentation from Biotechnical Faculty of University of Montenegro has it at 1,900 km2 or almost 14%.

thedb

level 60

Sep 13, 2018

What about Denmark (Greenland)?

HermandLund

level 66

Sep 13, 2018

Jetpunk very rarely include Greenland in any of Denmarks statistics.

someone2018

level 63

Sep 13, 2018

Congo is pretty surprising.

Tramp

level 68

Sep 13, 2018

Yeah. Surely it can't be that low...?

samiamco

level 70

Sep 14, 2018

It's very heavily forested, right? I mean, jungled?

someone2018

level 63

Sep 15, 2018

I guess they haven't slashed and burned like Brazil yet. You'd think if they could level a couple hundred square kilometers to plop a city of 2,000,000 people they could clear a little land to feed the nation.

JWC1202

level 62

Sep 16, 2018

The distinction between arable and agricultural land should probably be made clearer in the instructions, which make it sound like both are included. According to tradingeconomics.com, "Agricultural land is defined as the land area that is either arable, under permanent crops, or under permanent pastures. Arable land includes land under temporary crops such as cereals, temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow." Colombia, for example, has over 40% of agricultural land but less than 2% arable land.

Algernon

level 67

Sep 19, 2018

Yeah, that would help. A few of the answers really surprised me until I saw your explanation.

level 66

Oct 6, 2018

Cocoa doesn't count I guess. I saw a fascinating piece from Vice on this and how they are trying other crops - farmers just want to be paid, they don't care about the crop. This makes more sense now, because they can't just grow anything.

ander217

level 75

Oct 6, 2018

Farmers are locked into whatever is marketable and transportable. They might be able to grow anything but unless a market and system of transporting the goods to market exists, it does them no good. I could grow 100 acres of brussels sprouts, but without a veggie packing plant in my area that needs them to fill orders, or a fleet of trucks to ship them to a distant packing plant, what would I do with them? Unlike manufacturing plants which can hold their goods, most farm products are perishable. Even dried grains are in danger of insect and rodent infestation or mold during storage.

kalbahamut

level 75

Oct 6, 2018

I used to live in Bahrain and have driven the perimeter of the country multiple times. Where were they hiding all this farmland? There's a tree in the desert there that's a major tourist attraction because nothing else around is even alive.

gtj31

level 67

Oct 6, 2018

Agreed 100%. Unless they are counting some generous circumference around the palm trees as they produce dates, no chance Bahrain has virtually any arable land.

lbjool

level 66

Oct 6, 2018

San Marino? Liechtenstein?

stef12345

level 32

Oct 6, 2018

Monaco, Liechtenstein, Vatican, etc????

unknown2000

level 42

Oct 6, 2018

Monaco and Vatican aren't counted, says that in the description. I guess Liechtenstein has more than 1.64% farmland.

bezz

level 60

Oct 6, 2018

Yes, I can imagine that Monaco has sprawling wheat fields and don't forget the Vatican corn belt. Honestly, there must be less arable land in Monaco than Djibouti by any metric. If anyone has seen Malta, why isn't that place on the list?

Djilas

level 72

Jan 31, 2019

Malta is so small though that you just need a few large gardens to reach 2%.

Djilas

level 72

Jan 31, 2019

Liechtenstein lies in the upper Rhine valley, much of it is quite flat.

catalpa

level 73

Oct 6, 2018

Guess what I'm thinking! Not fun - at least, not for me.