Only some 4 % of Venezuela's total area, or about 3.8 million hectares, was considered readily arable or already under cultivation in the late 1980s. Some estimates claimed that as much as one-third of the nation's total land area was suitable for agriculture. In general, Venezuela's large expanse was better suited to forest or pasture than to crops, and much otherwise arable land had been comparatively neglected because of adverse weather conditions or deficiency of access to markets.