Editing Arable land (section)

==Non-arable land==
{{more citations needed section|date=February 2014}}
[[File:Kerbau Jawa.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Water buffalo ploughing rice fields near Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia]]
[[File:Beverley Minster from West Pasture.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|A pasture in the [[East Riding of Yorkshire]] in England]]
[[Agricultural land]] that is not arable according to the FAO definition above includes:
* Meadows and [[pasture]]s{{snd}}land used as pasture and grazed range, and those natural grasslands and sedge meadows that are used for hay production in some regions.
* [[Permanent crop]]{{snd}}land that produces crops from woody vegetation, e.g. orchard land, vineyards, coffee plantations, rubber plantations, and land producing nut trees;

Other non-arable land includes land that is not suitable for any agricultural use. Land that is not arable, in the sense of lacking capability or suitability for cultivation for crop production, has one or more limitations{{snd}}a lack of sufficient freshwater for irrigation, stoniness, steepness, adverse climate, excessive wetness with the impracticality of drainage, excessive salts, or a combination of these, among others.<ref>United States Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service.  1961.  Land capability classification.  Agriculture Handbook 210.  21 pp.</ref> Although such limitations may preclude cultivation, and some will in some cases preclude any agricultural use, large areas unsuitable for cultivation may still be agriculturally productive. For example, United States NRCS statistics indicate that about 59 percent of US non-federal pasture and unforested rangeland is unsuitable for cultivation, yet such land has value for grazing of livestock.<ref>NRCS. 2013. Summary report 2010 national resources inventory. The United States Natural Resources Conservation Service. 163 pp.</ref> In British Columbia, Canada, 41 percent of the provincial Agricultural Land Reserve area is unsuitable for the production of cultivated crops, but is suitable for uncultivated production of forage usable by grazing livestock.<ref name="ALCALRFS">Agricultural Land Commission.  Agriculture Capability and the ALR Fact Sheet. http://www.alc.gov.bc.ca/alc/DownloadAsset?assetId=72876D8604EC45279B8D3C1B14428CF8&filename=agriculture_capability__the_alr_fact_sheet_2013.pdf{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Similar examples can be found in many [[rangeland]] areas elsewhere.