Ploughing ahead

By The Economist online

Which country has the most tractors on its farmland?

MORE than 60 contestants from more than 30 countries gathered in Croatia at the weekend for the 59th World Ploughing Championships. The Economist failed to send a correspondent, but we have learned that the competition was split into conventional ploughing and reversible ploughing, where two ploughs are mounted back-to-back so they can be driven backwards and forwards. Competitors furrowed plots of about two square kilometres and were judged on the depth, straightness and overall look of their ploughing. The championships are usually dominated by Britain and New Zealand, and indeed the victor in the conventional category was a Scotsman. Yet if preponderance of tractors were the key factor behind competitive ploughing success, no entrants would be able to touch the Icelanders: Iceland has more tractors than hectares of arable land, according to World Bank data, the only country in the world so endowed. Rocky terrain and a lack of dependable roads go some way to explaining this outlier; Iceland has a road density (quantity of road per land area) comparable to Kenya or Tanzania.