Smallholders produce one-third of the world’s food, less than half of what many headlines claim
- Media Manager
- Aug 5, 2021
- 2 min read
Most of the world's farmers are smallholders. They are also often the poorest. How much of the world's food do they produce?
Our World in Data
Written By: Hannah Ritchie
Published: August 6th, 2021
Photo Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
It is often claimed that smallholder farmers produce 70% or even 80% of the world’s food. This claim has even been made by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO).
It has been a linchpin for agricultural and development policies. But it is wrong. Recent studies suggest that this figure is too high: smallholder farmers produce around one-third of the world’s food, less than half of what these headlines claim.
A key problem is that some use the terms ‘family farms’ and ‘smallholder farms’ interchangeably. Family farms do produce around 80% of the world’s food. These farms can be of any size, and should not be confused with smallholders.
Most (84%) of the world’s 570 million farms are smallholdings; that is, farms less than two hectares in size. Many smallholder farmers are some of the poorest people in the world. Tragically, and somewhat paradoxically, they are also those who often go hungry.
A shift towards small-scale farming can be an important stage of a country’s development, especially if it has a large working age population. But, it’s gruelling work with poor returns: small farms can achieve good yields but need lots of human labor and input. Labor productivity is low.
This is why countries move beyond a workforce of farmers: younger people get an education, move towards cities, and try to secure a job with higher levels of productivity and income. A country cannot leave deep poverty behind when most of the population work as smallholder farmers.
