Agricultural land in OECD countries occupies 1.2 billion hectares, equivalent to 25% of the world’s agricultural area. One-third of this land area is planted to crops and the remainder is in pasture. The OECD region is home to 452 million livestock units, representing 24% of worldwide livestock units. The median share of land irrigated in OECD countries increased from 1.9% in 2020 to 3% in 2021.
Agricultural land area in OECD countries declined slightly between 2010 and 2020. Over this period, cropland decreased by 0.8% per year on average, while land in pasture remained relatively stable. The majority of land removed from agricultural production has been converted to tree-covered areas, areas of sparse vegetation, and artificial surfaces (OECD, 2023).
Measuring the Environmental Performance of Agriculture Across OECD Countries
1. OECD
Agriculture characteristics and environmental performance
Agriculture characteristics
Environmental performance
Greenhouse gas (GHG) and ammonia emissions
The median GHG emissions intensity declined by 7.5%, from 1.60kg of CO2eq/USD in 2008-10 to 1.48kg of CO2eq/USD in 2018-20.
However, OECD countries did not make progress in reducing total agricultural GHG emissions or ammonia emissions: total GHG emissions increased by 5.3%, from 1.4Mt in 2008-2010 to 1.5Mt in 2018-2020 and total ammonia emissions increased by 4%, from 8.2Mt to 8.5Mt, over the same period. Roughly one-half of GHG emissions were in the form of methane, mainly from livestock sources and rice production; the other half were in the form of nitrous oxides originating mainly from the application of organic and inorganic fertilisers.
Nutrient balances
For OECD countries, the median nitrogen and phosphorus balances increased, in part due to an increase in the use of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers. An increase in nutrient balances indicates an increased potential for nutrient leaching and runoff, which can contribute to surface water and groundwater degradation as well as to greenhouse gas emissions. Excess phosphorus may reside in the soil for many years, contributing to a legacy of water quality degradation.
Median nitrogen fertiliser use increased by 1.3% per year from 2008-2020, while phosphorous fertiliser use increased by 2.3% over the same period.
The OECD median nitrogen balance increased by 23.7%, from 41kg/ha in 2008-10 to 51.3kg/ha in 2018-20, while the median phosphorous balance increased by 31%, from 2.8kg/ha to 3.7kg/ha, over the same period. The median efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus use remained stable from 2008-2020.
Biodiversity
In most countries that report the farmland birds index, there was a decrease in farmland bird biodiversity. Of the 28 countries that track biodiversity of farmland birds, 20 have recorded a decrease since 2010, while 8 have seen an improvement in the index.
Dashboard description
This dashboard is a tool to visualise the evolution of selected environmental indicators related to agricultural activities in OECD countries. It contains seven sections: i) summary of key characteristics of the agricultural sector; ii) agricultural land-use change; iii) production and input use; iv) nutrients; v) greenhouse gas emissions; vi) ammonia emissions; and vii) farmland birds biodiversity.
The agriculture characteristics section presents a short summary of the agricultural context, focusing on agricultural land and cropland as well as livestock and irrigated area indicators. The agricultural land-use change section focuses on total agricultural land, cropland, and pasture. The production and input-use panel shows trends of agricultural production and input use indicators. Production is measured using the agricultural production index of the FAO. Inputs are expressed on a per-hectare basis to control for the quantity of agricultural land. The nutrient balances section shows long-term trends in nitrogen and phosphorus balances and efficiency of use; nutrient balance indicators can act as a signal for the potential environmental impact of agriculture on air, soil and water. The section on greenhouse gas emissions presents long-term trends of total greenhouse gas emissions and emissions intensity per USD of Gross Production Value (in constant 2014-2016 dollars). Agricultural activities contribute to global warming by emitting nitrous oxide and methane, two powerful greenhouse gases. The ammonia emissions section presents trends of agricultural ammonia emissions, which are associated with two major types of environmental problems: acidification of soil and water, and eutrophication of water bodies. The farmland birds biodiversity section shows the trends of the farmland birds index, which is used as a proxy for farmland biodiversity, although this is not suitable in all contexts (e.g. where birdlife includes invasive species).
Data sources
FAOSTAT (2023), “Food and agriculture data”, http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/ (accessed May 2023) for livestock units, gross value of production and agricultural production index.
UNFCCC (2022), “Greenhouse gas inventory database”, https://di.unfccc.int/ghg_profile_annex1 (accessed September 2022) for greenhouse gas emissions.
OECD (2023), “Agri-environmental indicators database”, http://www.oecd.org/agriculture/topics/agriculture-and-the-environment/ (accessed August 2023) for all other indicators.
Reference
OECD (2019), “Trends and drivers of agri-environmental performance in OECD countries”, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b59b1142-en.
Caveats
Methodologies to measure indicators are not well established in all cases and may differ across countries. Caution must be exercised in comparing the evolution of indicators across countries, as a given change in a particular indicator may have differing effects depending on the specific context. In some cases, indicators may differ from official statistics due to methodological differences. For some countries, some sections and figures are omitted due to lack of data. To account for differences in the size of OECD countries, the scales of the figures are different across countries and the performance of a given country is compared to that of the OECD median. Nevertheless, national-level data can conceal significant subnational differences and variations in indicators may not necessarily reflect the impact of policies. To minimise the effect of weather or market shocks on indicator levels, the dashboard presents multi-year trends.
Agriculture characteristics
Agricultural land and livestock units
2021 or latest year available
|
Agricultural land |
1 214 million ha |
|
Cropland |
417 million ha |
|
Pasture |
797 million ha |
|
Livestock units |
452 million LU |
Share of cropland, livestock and irrigated area
Agricultural land use change
Input use
1. The OECD median refers to the median input use intensity (input / ha).
Nutrients
1. For the following, the most recent value available (in parentheses) is used for all subsequent years: Belgium (2014), Denmark (2014), Estonia (2012), Greece (2014), Hungary (2017) Ireland (2017), Italy (2017), Japan (2016), Luxembourg (2014), Norway (2016), Spain (2017) and United Kingdom (2017).
2. The OECD includes Australia from 2004 and Israel from 2005.
Note: For the following, the most recent value available (in parentheses) is used for all subsequent years: Belgium (2014), Denmark (2014), Estonia (2012), Greece (2014), Hungary (2017) Ireland (2017), Italy (2017), Japan (2016), Luxembourg (2014), Norway (2016), Spain (2017) and United Kingdom (2017).
1. For the following, the most recent value available (in parentheses) is used for all subsequent years: Belgium (2014), Denmark (2014), Estonia (2012), Greece (2014), Hungary (2017) Ireland (2017), Italy (2014), Japan (2016), Luxembourg (2014), Norway (2016), Spain (2017) and United Kingdom (2017).
2. The OECD includes Australia from 2004 and Israel from 2005.
Note: For the following, the most recent value available (in parentheses) is used for all subsequent years: Belgium (2014), Denmark (2014), Estonia (2012), Greece (2014), Hungary (2017) Ireland (2017), Italy (2014), Japan (2016), Luxembourg (2014), Norway (2016), Spain (2017) and United Kingdom (2017).
Greenhouse gas emissions
Note: For Costa Rica, the value of 2017 is used for the period 2018-2020.
Note: For Costa Rica, the value of 2017 is used for the period 2018-2020.
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Agricultural ammonia emissions
Note: The OECD total includes Australia from 2004 and does not include Israel from 1990 to 1999, Korea from 1990 to 2000, Chile, Japan, Mexico and New Zealand.