Source: FAO Stat-PC, Land Use Domain. 1995. Version 3.0, Food and Agriculture O
rganization, Rome.
Extracted by Rosegrant et al (1996). For Japan, FAO-RAP Publication 1996/32, Se
-lected indicators of Food and Agriculture Development in Asia-Pacific Region,
1985-95, and Tsutsui (1992).
The growth of irrigated arable lands varies greatly among the countries due to
the con-trasting availability of their water resources as shown in Table 3. The
Asian-Pacific region, as analyzed by Rosegrant and Meinzen-Dick (1996), is rel
atively land-scarce, with an average per capita arable land of 0.17 ha, ranging
from 0.04 ha in the Republic of Korea to 0.60 ha in Mongolia. China, which acc
ount for nearly 60% of the total 159 million ha, has a per capita arable land o
f 0.08 ha, while a South Korean only has half of that area and a Mongolian 7 ti
mes that area. However, irrigated area in each country can account for about ha
lf of the total arable lands.
