I'd like to see them compare it to the actually productivity in the country we're living in. the US has by far the most productive agricultural land in the world, due in part to good soil, but due mostly to incredible advances in the technology of farming. I would argue against the idea that there is a universally standardized "production per acre" for every country.
My brother-in-law is in Tanzania right now, trying to teach local farmers how to use sustainable, higher yield farming methods to maximise the use of their lands. We're talking the absolute basics here, like how to efficiently irrigate, how to use fertilizer, how to let a field fallow so that it doesn't get stripped of all usable nutrients. I think there are many, many parts of the world where poor transportation, poor education, and official corruption degrade the productivity of land, much more so than a simple lack of resources (water and seed crop).
Just my $.02 - I'm no student of agriculture, but when has that ever stopped me from having an opinion.
Happy October all.
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