Comparison of ​​cropland area according to ARMSTAT and landcover data

Cropland area according to landcover data was compared with three ARMSTAT indicators for the same year as the landcover data:
– Arable land (Arable in graphs) , that is, an area intended for cultivation, but not necessarily used every year. 
– Annually cultivated area (Cultivated in graphs), that is the sum of annually plowed area, the area of fruit and berry plantations (including greenhouses, hothouses and inter-row fruit-bearing plantations), and vineyards.
– Annually plowed area (Plowed in graphs) that is plantations of grains and leguminous crops, potatoes, vegetables and melons.
Cropland area in GLC_FC land cover exceeds ARMSTAT data by many times, especially in the marz Vayots Dzor. Cropland area in the Dynamic World landcover also significantly exceed the statistic data.

After excluding GLC_FC and Dynamic World data sets from the analysis, it is clear that cropland area in the remaining three land covers is expectedly smaller than the area of arable land and larger than the annually cultivated and plowed area according to ARMSTAT data.

In the graphs below, negative discrepancy values ​​mean that the area of ​​croplands according to landcover data exceeds the ARMSTAT data.

Land cover data is closest to area of arable land according to ARMSTAT data. In this category, the most accurate are ESRI and GLAD data. However, when compared with annually cultivated and plowed area according to ARMSTAT, the most accurate are ESA data.

Correlation pattern between area ​​according to land cover and ARMSTAT data is somewhat different: the best correlation is observed between ESA and ESRI data and ARMSTAT data on annually cultivated and plowed area. That is, ESA and ESRI data exceeds the statistics, but always by approximately the same amount.