Economy of Japan
The Japanese agricultural sector accounts for about 1.4% of the total country's GDP. Only 12% of Japan's land is suitable for cultivation. Due to this lack of arable land, a system of terraces is used to farm in small areas. This results in one of the world's highest levels of crop yields per unit area, with an overall agricultural self-sufficiency rate of about 50% on fewer than 56,000 km² (14 million acres) cultivated.
Alaje
A sample enumeration performed by the CSA in 2001 interviewed 20,420 farmers in this woreda, who held an average of 0.5 hectares of land. Of the 10,110 hectares of private land surveyed, 92.87% was in cultivation, 0.28% pasture, 3.03% fallow, 0.24% woodland, and 3.59% was devoted to other uses. For the land under cultivation in this woreda, 65.39% was planted in cereals, 24.94% in pulses, and 51 hectares in oilseeds; the area planted in vegetables is missing. The area planted in fruit trees was 57 hectares, while 32 were planted in gesho. 65.36% of the farmers both raised crops and livestock, while 33.63% only grew crops and 1.0% only raised livestock. Land tenure in this woreda is distributed amongst 86.43% owning their land, and 10.73% renting; the number held in other forms of tenure is missing.