a.   Rangeland

By definition, rangeland includes non-cultivated areas in the high and low rainfall zones. However, most of this land is located in the arid zone which provides important grazing and browse. Livestock is the major source of income for local communities in this zone. Lands in this zone are usually overgrazed by nomadic and semi - nomadic flock owners from late in the winter to mid summer.  The highest productive rangelands are located within the 100-250 mm rainfall (steppe grassland and brush). In this zone, barley is cultivated for hay; rainfall is rarely adequate to produce a reasonable crop (100-500 Kg /ha) and failure or, at best, limited vegetative growth is common. Before the advent of the tractor, marginal lands were rarely plowed because of the high labor input required for animal drawn plowing. With the introduction of the tractor on a major scale in the early 1950's, expansion of tillage into the steppe lands speeded up (HTS, 1956). In recent years, this expansion has become increasingly rapid due to factors such as land ownership and territorial conflicts among the Bedu, low input requirements and most important is the limited forage resources. The result is large areas of steppe vegetation have been destroyed and the carrying capacity of the range was much reduced.

b.   Rainfed agriculture:

Generally, rainfall amounts and climatic conditions of the country do not support good rainfed agriculture, except for few areas in the northern and western highlands. Therefore, the rainfed agricultural zone is lying within the xeric soil moisture regime in areas where rainfall exceeds 250 mm, although significant production of cereals does occur in some areas where rainfall is between 200 and 250 mm. According to the NSMLUP, there are two main sub-divisions within the rainfed sector, namely fruit trees and field crops. Tree crops dominate the hilly and steeply sloping lands of the western part of the highland plateau. Slopes are generally too steep for cereal and other annual crop production even with soil conservation measures. However, wheat is grown on inappropriately steep slopes in some places. There has been significant expansion of the area under tree crops, especially olives, and this is a trend which has been encouraged by Government under projects like the Zarqa Basin Project and Highland Development Project. On the undulating lands of the major plains of Irbid, Madaba, Karak, Tafila and Shoubak wheat is the major crop, with lesser areas of tobacco, "broom" sorghum and other summer crops of lentil and chickpea.

c.   Irrigated agriculture:

Most of irrigated agriculture is located in the Jordan Valley. The area under cultivation is served by surface water supplies transported via the King Abdullah Canal, limited areas in the south of the valley is irrigated from groundwater. The total area under irrigation in Jordan Valley and the southern Ghors in 2003 was estimated to be about 33,000 ha. The major crops are vegetables and trees including citrus and bananas. In the north of the valley, wheat is grown on often stony soils and depends initially on rain, but supplementary irrigation by sprinkler is given at the yield formation stage. In the Disi and Mudawwara areas, deep fossil groundwater is used for the centre pivot irrigation of wheat, forage and potatoes. Important irrigated agriculture is also taking place on the basalt plateau soils of north Jordan, in Mafraq governorate. In these areas, the utilization of groundwater resources was expanded rapidly into the steppe zone, often for the production of fruit crops. Other irrigated areas are mainly found in south and south east of Amman in the upper Dead Sea ground water basin. Finally, in many of the valleys leading from the highlands to the rift valley, springs are exploited for irrigated fruit and vegetables. There are only limited alluvial areas in most of the valleys and, increasingly, water is pumped to small, gently sloping areas of deeper soils at considerable heights above the stream bed. This kind of production can be seen in wadi al Mujib and wadi al Hassa. The agricultural area in Jordan varies from one year to another depending on the rainfall amounts and available water resources. Summary of the total rainfed and agricultural areas for 2003

Other land use/cover types are forming small proportion of the country’s area. Although urban area constitutes about 2% of the land, however it is mainly concentrated in the most productive lands of high rainfall zone in Amman, Irbed, Madaba, and Salt. Forests, on the other hand, are mainly found in the high rainfall zone of Ajloun and Jarash and have been altered by agro-forestry systems and cutting.