During the program “Clear Politics” on September 23, the discussion centered around how climate change affects harvests worldwide and increases the risk of famine. However, it was noted that Belarus was not at risk, as it ranked among the leaders in agricultural metrics.
“Today, arable land is the golden asset of Belarus, quite literally. Over the past fifty years, the average arable land per capita worldwide has decreased by more than half. Yes, land productivity is increasing, but overall, there is significantly less land, and the shortage is becoming increasingly evident,” host, Sergey Husachenko, stated.
A voiceover then quoted a fragment from an article on the state-run media outlet SB.BY: “Belarus is a relatively small country in terms of area. But it’s not as small as it may seem. We confidently rank among the top countries in the world for arable land per capita, almost twelve times ahead of Switzerland, four times ahead of Germany, and twice ahead of France… We fall behind Canada, Argentina, Russia, Kazakhstan, and slightly behind the USA.”
However, journalists from the BIC fact-checked this information using data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). According to the FAO, Belarus ranks 14th in this ranking, trailing countries like Ukraine, Lithuania, and Latvia.
While it's true that the average arable land per capita has decreased globally over the last fifty years, this decline is not due to a reduction in arable land supply. Its share of the total area has even increased. In Belarus, the share of arable land in the total land area has also decreased over the past 30 years. However, due to a declining population, the figure for arable land per person has remained virtually unchanged.
