Table 2.3
Dependable agricultural land 1 | Land with important limitations for agriculture 2 | Farm area on dependable agricultural land | Farm area on land with important limitations for agriculture | Settled area on dependable agricultural land 3 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2001 | 2011 | 2001 | 2011 | 2000 | 2011 | |||
hectares | ||||||||
Total | 50,534,922 4 | 74,413,254 | 36,796,533 | 35,826,731 | 23,410,939 | 23,772,487 | 1,173,824 5 | 1,393,335 |
Taiga Plains | 35,776 | 1,623,948 | 48 | 469 | 1,562 | 1,422 | 10 | 10 |
Boreal Shield | 2,705,419 | 8,193,591 | 378,384 | 368,866 | 314,973 | 345,454 | 68,986 | 73,226 |
Atlantic Maritime | 3,746,182 | 5,942,430 | 624,649 | 668,190 | 693,864 | 754,836 | 135,137 | 145,673 |
Mixed Wood Plains | 6,991,637 | 2,812,461 | 4,567,559 | 4,360,662 | 1,297,333 | 1,242,348 | 479,923 | 607,953 |
Boreal Plains | 10,783,663 | 26,807,321 | 6,980,387 | 6,746,594 | 4,784,293 | 4,721,428 | 93,584 | 103,972 |
Prairies | 25,996,677 | 19,215,318 | 24,159,266 | 23,592,406 | 15,429,313 | 15,596,043 | 365,275 | 425,082 |
Pacific Maritime 6 | 107,238 | 453,028 | 33,674 | 34,317 | 40,674 | 45,221 | 23,102 | 28,848 |
Montane Cordillera 6 | 168,329 | 9,365,157 | 52,566 | 55,226 | 848,927 | 1,065,736 | 7,807 | 8,572 |
Dependable agricultural land is land designated
as Class 1 (no significant limitations), Class 2 (moderate
limitations) and Class 3 (moderately severe limitations) by the
Canada Land Inventory and includes all evaluated land areas that are not affected
by severe constraints for crop production.
Land with important limitations for agriculture
is designated as Class 4 (severe limitations), Class 5 (forage
crops improvement practices feasible), and Class 6 (forage crops
improvement practices not feasible).
Settled area is based on Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada's (AAFC) 30 m land cover code for developed areas. Some northern
areas only partially covered by the AAFC land cover were supplemented with
estimates derived from Statistics Canada’s settlements data and AAFC's 30 m
land cover (see Map 1, Appendix C in Statistics Canada, 2013, "Measuring
ecosystem goods and services in Canada," Human Activity and the Environment
, Catalogue no. 16-201-X for geographic coverage).
Total dependable agricultural land presented
here differs from that in Hofmann, N., G. Filoso and M. Schofield, 2005,
"The loss of dependable agricultural land in Canada," Rural and Small Town
Canada Analysis Bulletin, Statistics Canada Catalogue no.
21-006-X, Vol. 6, no. 1, due to differences in the projection
selected and the reporting geography for the GIS analysis and the supplementary
data sources.
Total settled area on dependable agricultural
land presented here differs from that in Hoffman et al. (2005), due to the
use of 2001 Census Enumeration Area (EA) files for the estimate
of total settled area in Hoffman et al. (2005), while this study mainly used 2000 AAFC 30 m
satellite imagery. See note 3 for further details.
Canada Land Inventory data for the categories
dependable agricultural land and land with important limitations for agriculture
have been supplemented with data from British Columbia's Agricultural Capability
dataset (1:50,000) to address gaps in coverage.
Source(s):
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 1998, Canada Land Inventory,
National Soil DataBase, http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/nsdb/cli/index.html (accessed
June 4, 2014). Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Statistics Canada,
special tabulation, Census of Agriculture, Census Geographic Component Base 2001 and 2011.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2009, Land Cover for Agricultural
Regions of Canada (circa 2000), version 12, http://data.gc.ca/data/en/dataset/16d2f828-96bb-468d-9b7d-1307c81e17b8
(accessed October 9, 2012). Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2012,
2011 AAFC Crop Type Map of Canada, ftp://ftp.agr.gc.ca/pub/outgoing/aesb-eos-gg/Crop_Inventory/2011/
(accessed October 9, 2012). British Columbia Ministry of
Environment, Environmental Stewardship Division, 2013, Agriculture
Capabilities geodatabase, www.env.gov.bc.ca/esd/distdata/ecosystems/Soil_Data/AgricultureCapability_50K/
(accessed June 4, 2014). Hofmann, N., A. Elgarawany, H. Larocque,
G. Filoso and T. Dennis, 2010, “A new research project on Canadian
settlements: initial geographic results,” EnviroStats, Vol. 4,
no. 1, Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 16-002-X.
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