Arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops in India

India: Arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops was 0.19 in 2023. ▼ Falling

Latest (2023)
0.19
Change on year
down 3.6%
World rank
138th
of 163 countries
All-time high
1.05
in 1966
All-time low
0.19
in 2023
Years of data
63
1961–2023

Arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops in India, 1961–2023

0.20.40.60.81196119922023

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025); Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data.

Analysis

The most recent figure for arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops in India is 0.19, measured in 2023. That is the lowest value across all 63 years on record.

The figure is down 3.6% on the previous year and down 24.0% over ten years.

Over the whole period, arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops in India peaked at 1.05 in 1966 and was at its lowest, 0.19, in 2023.

That places India 138th out of 163 countries with data for 2023, putting it in the bottom quarter.

The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 63 years of available data.

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
1960s 0.9838 0.8953 1.05 9
1970s 0.795 0.6974 0.8806 10
1980s 0.6181 0.5099 0.7258 10
1990s 0.4347 0.3793 0.5104 10
2000s 0.3545 0.3028 0.4136 10
2010s 0.2473 0.2182 0.2837 10
2020s 0.1999 0.19 0.2108 4

Countries ranked near India

  1. 135 Egypt 0.1982 compare
  2. 136 Colombia 0.1938 compare
  3. 137 Indonesia 0.1935 compare
  4. 139 Burkina Faso 0.186 compare
  5. 140 Morocco 0.1856 compare
  6. 141 Kenya 0.183 compare

See the full ranking of 163 places →

More reference data data for India

All data for India →

Frequently asked questions

What is arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops in India?
Arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops in India was 0.19 in 2023, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025); Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
What is the highest arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops recorded in India?
The highest recorded value was 1.05 in 1966.
What is the lowest arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops recorded in India?
The lowest recorded value was 0.19 in 2023.
How does India rank for arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops?
India ranks 138th out of 163 countries with data for 2023.
Is arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops rising or falling in India?
Over the last ten years it is down 24.0%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
Where does this India data come from?
The figures come from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025); Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

Download this data

CSV · JSON — 63 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).

About this data

Indicator
Arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops
Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025); Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
163 places, 10,097 data points, 1961–2023
Last refreshed

Index of arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops (where values in 1961 are equal to 1.0).