Agriculture in Azerbaijan

Soviet Azerbaijan was largely an agrarian country, with the share of agriculture in GDP fluctuating around 30% through the 1980s. After the demise of the USSR in 1991, Azerbaijan's economy underwent rapid “petrolification” with the share of the oil sector rising from 16% of GDP in 1995 to 64% in 2023. The share of agriculture simultaneously decreased from 25% in 1995 to less than 6% in 2023. Today, Azerbaijan is classified by international institutions as an upper-middle-income economy rich in hydrocarbon resources.

Azerbaijan's agricultural land endowment in 2023 was about 4.8 million hectares, constituting 55% of its territory. This put Azerbaijan among the top 15 countries in the world richest in agricultural land.

Agricultural land was evenly split between meadows and pastures supporting livestock (2.4 million hectares) and arable land supporting crop production (2.1 million hectares; the balance was permanent orchards). Forests occupied 12% of Azerbaijan's territory, representing 1 million hectares, according to the annual agricultural report by the State Statistics Committee in 2023. A steady 30% of the agricultural land has remained under irrigation since 1990.