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Agriculture vocabulary · Soil and Land Management

Arable land

Meaning in agriculture, with examples

/ˈærəbl lænd/nounCore term

In agriculture, arable land means: Land that is plowed or cultivated and used for growing annual crops such as cereals, vegetables or fodder crops.

In Turkish: ekilebilir arazi, işlenebilir tarım arazisi, tarla arazisi

How it is used

Used in statistics, land use planning and farm descriptions. FAO statistics separate arable land from permanent crops such as orchards and from permanent pasture. Farmers also say 'arable farming' for crop farming without livestock.

Example sentences

  1. The family owns 40 hectares of arable land and 10 hectares of olive groves.

  2. Urban growth is turning fertile arable land into housing.

Common collocations

  • arable land
  • arable farming
  • arable crops
  • loss of arable land
  • hectares of arable land
  • soilThe loose upper layer of the earth, made of minerals, organic matter, water and air, in which plants grow and take up water and nutrients.
  • hectareA metric unit of area equal to 10,000 square meters, or ten decares; the standard unit for land and yields in international agriculture.
  • fallowDescribing farmland that is left without a crop for a season or longer, so that it can store moisture, recover fertility or be cleaned of weeds.
  • crop rotationThe practice of growing different crops on the same field in a planned order over several seasons to keep the soil healthy and reduce pests, diseases and weeds.
  • pastureLand covered with grass and other plants where farm animals graze; also the plants growing on it.

More terms: Soil and Land Management

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