AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND LAND USE IN LIBYA Tripoli, December 1973. Libya lies on the North African coast, with a land area of 679,358 square miles and an estimated (1970) population of 1,900,000. In spite of its large petroleum industry, the country remains basically agricultural, producing dates, olives, lemons, almonds, figs, grapes and tobacco. From 1952 to 1969, the UNDP, with FAO as executing agency, participated in several Government projects in such fields as stock production, land settlement, development of tribal lands, soil surveys and forestry. Smiling workers on a chicken farm near the new city of El Marj are placed to show some of the chickens they have raised.