SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s total arable land decreased for the 10th consecutive year in 2022 as people consumed less rice, leading to an overall contraction of rice paddies, data showed Monday.
The country’s arable land totaled 1.52 million hectares — slightly bigger than the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut — as of end-2022, down 1.2 percent, or 19,000 hectares, from the previous year, according to the data by Statistics Korea.
The size of the rice paddy area dipped 0.6 percent on-year to 775,640 hectares last year, accounting for 50.8 percent of the total.
Dry fields for agricultural production also shed 1.8 percent over the period to 752,597 hectares.
Arable land in Asia’s fourth-largest economy has been on the decline since 2013 due to declining rice consumption amid changes in diet and eating habits.
The average South Korean consumed 56.7 kilograms of rice in 2022, down 0.4 percent, or 0.2 kilogram, from the previous year. It was the lowest level since the government began compiling related data in 1962.