Abstract
This study presents a global scale analysis of cropping intensity, crop duration and fallow land extent computed by using the global dataset on monthly irrigated and rainfed crop areas MIRCA2000. MIRCA2000 was mainly derived from census data and crop calendars from literature. Global cropland extent was 16 million km2 around the year 2000 of which 4.4 million km2 (28%) was fallow, resulting in an average cropping intensity of 0.82 for total cropland extent and of 1.13 when excluding fallow land. The lowest cropping intensities related to total cropland extent were found for Southern Africa (0.45), Central America (0.49) and Middle Africa (0.54), while highest cropping intensities were computed for Eastern Asia (1.04) and Southern Asia (1.0). In remote or arid regions where shifting cultivation is practiced, fallow periods last 3–10 years or even longer. In contrast, crops are harvested two or more times per year in highly populated, often irrigated tropical or subtropical lowlands where multi-cropping systems are common. This indicates that intensification of agricultural land use is a strategy that may be able to significantly improve global food security. There exist large uncertainties regarding extent of cropland, harvested crop area and therefore cropping intensity at larger scales. Satellite imagery and remote sensing techniques provide opportunities for decreasing these uncertainties and to improve the MIRCA2000 inventory.
Highlights
Due to population increase, changes in the composition of the human diet and increasing demand for bio-fuels, it is necessary to increase global crop production in order to avoid a new era of malnutrition and hunger [1,2,3,4,5]
Crop duration ratio is another indicator of land use intensity, which takes the length of cropping periods into account, and which was used by other authors to describe the effects of mechanization on cropping systems in India [17]
The largest amounts of fallow cropland were computed for the United Nations (UN) regions of Northern America and Eastern Europe, while the extent of fallow cropland was low in Western Europe and the Caribbean (Table 1)
Summary
Changes in the composition of the human diet and increasing demand for bio-fuels, it is necessary to increase global crop production in order to avoid a new era of malnutrition and hunger [1,2,3,4,5]. The discussion on how to achieve the required increase of crop production has been mainly restricted to the question of how many resources (e.g., water, nutrients, energy, germplasm) are needed, and whether an extension of the global cropland will be necessary or whether an increase of crop yields will be sufficient [6,7,8,9,10,11]. In this manuscript, we focus on analyzing cropland use intensity, another major determinant of total crop production. Crop duration ratio is defined as the fraction of the year in which the cropland is covered with crops
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
