According to the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), world agriculture generates a turnover of more than 500 billion euros. The surface area of the earth is 149 million square kilometers, i.e., without seas and oceans, which is 361 million square kilometers; 104 million square kilometers of land are habitable. If we refer to agriculture, the planet has 5.1 billion hectares, of which 1.1 billion are actually devoted to agriculture, which means that the arable land of the planet is only 5%, and the cultivated land is 1%.
Of these 1.1 billion hectares under cultivation, 80% is rainfed and the rest is irrigated.
The fresh water accessible to humans on the planet is only 0.00025% of the total land area.
With regard to the current distribution of the working population, of the almost 3.5 billion people working in the world, 25% are engaged in agriculture, i.e. approximately one person per hectare, 24% in industry, and the remaining 51% in the service sector, but by 2100, it is expected that agriculture will account for less than 15% of the total working population, while the service sector will be favored with an increase to 60%, while industry will continue to account for 25%. In Europe, only 2.5% of the working population will be devoted to agriculture, i.e., only one agricultural employee for every 28 hectares.
Due to this foreseeable labor shortage, the aforementioned woody crops have more than 4.1 million hectares planted in high density and hedgerow frames.
Each American farmer owns about 200 hectares of arable land, 13 times more than a European, in Canada making the same comparison, we would have that each farmer has average farms 22 times larger than Europeans, i.e. about 332 hectares.
Therefore, in current and future agriculture, we will have 0.00025% of the earth’s crust of accessible fresh water, to exploit in Europe 28 hectares for each person, of which at least 100 million hectares will be permanent woody crops.
In this situation, a friendly regulatory framework would contribute positively to the performance of the result.
SEE VIDEO SUMMARY BY JUAN VILAR