by Aksel Naerstad

International co-coordinator of the More and Better Network

Small scale food producers produce 70% of the total global food production according to United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP)[1] and the well acknowledged international organization ETC-group There are, however, no exact figures of how much food which is produced by different kind of food producers. Neither is there a clear definition of who are the small scale food producers or a distinct definition of industrial food production. There are for instance four different definition of family agriculture in Brazil, based on regional differences. A farm of 50 ha in Argentina is considered small, and a farm of 5 ha is considered a large farm in many countries in Asia.[2] In many reports small farms are categorized as farms with less than 2 hectares of land, but some propose to categorize all farms of less than 10 hectares as small.

Some figures

In the report Who will feed us? [3] ETC-group estimates, based on different sources, that small scale farmers / peasants produce 50% of the global food production; small scale food producers in the cities produce 7,5%; hunting, fishing and other forms of gathering and harvesting from nature counts for about 12,5%; and that the industrial food production produce about 30% of the total global food production.

The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) Global Report,[4] gives also an estimate of how much of the food is being produced by small scale food producers. The figures in the report are based on FAO data from 525 million farms all over the world. 90% of these farms are small farms, defined as farms with less than 2 hectares of land, and they contribute substantially to the global food production. The IAASTD-report highlights that in Africa 90% of the agricultural production comes from these small farms.

FAO (2010) 2000 World Census of Agriculture has statistics from 84 countries with a total of 436 million farms, which is 83% on all farms in the world, based on the figures in IAASTD. 85% of the farms in the census are small farms – calculated on the basis of farms less than 2 hectares for all countries and territories, except for Uruguay, USA and New Zealand where the statics are on less than 5 hectares.

FAO has estimated that about 15% of the annual consumption of food by peasants and their families in rural areas in developing countries come from areas which are not cultivated,[5] and that 75-90% of all staple food is produced and consumed locally.[6]

Food First published in 2008 an article from M. Altieri[7] with the following figures:

“At present, small farms (2 hectares and less) produce the majority of staple crops for urban and rural inhabitants across the world – in Latin America 17 million peasant farms produce 51 percent of the maize, 77 percent of the beans, and 61 percent of the potatoes consumed domestically; 33 million small (mostly female– run) farms in Africa, representing 80 per­cent of the farms, produce a ‘significant amount of basic food crops with virtually no or little use of fertilizers and improved seed;’ and in Asia most of the rice consumed is produced by more than 200 million small farmers”.

Worldwatch Institute estimates that urban agriculture produce 15-20% of all food in the world.4 Other institutes use similar figures, but the studies do not cover the whole world. FAO estimate that urban agriculture provides the food for about 700 million people. [8]

In an article by 16 scientists in the well acknowledged magazine Science in 2010 [9] they state that two third of the global population is linked to a kind of mixt crop-livestock systems, mainly small farms with less than 2 hectare of land;

“According to the CGIAR analysis, the world’s one billion poor people (those living on less than $1 a day) are fed primarily by hundreds of millions of small-holder farmers (most with less than 2 ha of land, several crops, and perhaps a cow or two) and herders (most with fewer than five large animals) in Africa and Asia (3). Furthermore, mixed crop-livestock systems could be the key to future food security; two-thirds of the global population already live in these systems, and much of the future population growth will occur there. Already, mixed systems produce close to 50% of the world’s cereals and most of the staples consumed by poor people: 41% of maize, 86% of rice, 66% of sorghum, and 74% of millet production (3). They also generate the bulk of livestock products in the developing world, that is, 75% of the milk and 60% of the meat, and employ many millions of people in farms, formal and informal markets, processing plants, and other parts of long value chains (3).”[10]

The Norwegian government states in the budget proposal for 2012 that small-scale farmers produce 80% of the food in developing countries.[11] This means that peasants in developing countries produce the food for 65% of the population in the world, if we keep export and import out of the picture. Even if import of food is important for many countries, also for developing countries, is the share of the food which crosses borders only about 10% of the total food production.[12]

The President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is also using the same figure; that small scale farmers in developing countries produce 80% of the food in developing countries.[13]

I would like to underline that none of the figures above are accurate. There is a need for better statistics, but there are many more sources than used in this article which have similar figures. Some people have challenged the figures above, and said that industrial food produce most of the food in the world. I have not been able to find any sources or references which tell that.



References / sources for how much of the food is produced / provided by small scale food producers, herders, gatherers

Altieri, M. A. 2008. Small Farms as a Planetary Ecological Asset: Five Key Reasons Why We Should Support the Revitalisation of Small Farms in the Global South. Third World Network. Environment & Development Series no. 7.

Altieri, Miguel,2008, in FoodFirst http://www.food­first.org/en/node/2115

Det kongelige utenriksdepartement. Prop. 1 S (2011–2012) Proposisjon til Stortinget (forslag til stortingsvedtak), side 40. (The budget proposal from the Norwegian government for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 2012, page 40)

Eric Baas. 2006. The world of vegetables. Challenges and opportunities for vegetable suppliers. Rabobank International

ETC -group. 2009. Who Will Feed Us? Questions for the Food and Climate Crises.

FAO Newsroom, 3. juni 2005: «Farming in Urban Areas Can Boost Food Security»

FAO, State of the World 2007- Our Urban Future,

FAO. 2011. GEA4/2011. Working Document 4. Improving Food Sustems for Sustainable Diets in a Green Economy. FAO/OECD Expert Meeting in Greening the Economy with Agriculture, Paris, 5-7 September 2011. Draft: 12 August 2011.

FAO. 2011. GEA4/2011. Working Document 4. Improving Food Sustems for Sustainable Diets in a Green Economy. FAO/OECD Expert Meeting in Greening the Economy with Agriculture, Paris, 5-7 September 2011. Draft: 12 August 2011.

FAO (2010) 2000 World Cencus of Agriculture

Food Outlook, June 2011

IAASTD – International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). 2008. Global Report.

Ian Scoones, et al., 1992. The Hidden Harvest, the Role of Wild Foods in Agricultural Systems

IFAD, April 2009, “IFAD Policy on Engagement With Indigenous Peoples,” Draft Policy for Approval, Executive Board, 97th Session, Rome, 14-15 September 2009. EB 2009/97/R.3/Rev.1

IFAD’s President: Kanayo F. Nwanze. Statement by IFAD President on the measures to enhance global food security: rural development, smallholder farmers and trade considerations. 18 November, FAO, Rome, Italy. http://www.ifad.org/events/op/2009/rt_4.htm

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). 1998. URBAN CHALLENGES TO FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY: A REVIEW OF FOOD SECURITY, HEALTH, AND CAREGIVING IN THE CITIES

Inter­national Development Research Centre (2008) Agriculture in Urban Planning – Generating Livelihoods and Food Security, edited by Mark Redwood, Earthscan.

Lundqvist, Jan et al., “Saving Water from Field to Fork: Curbing Losses and Wastage in the Food Stream,” Draft for CSD, May 2008, Stock­holm International Water Institute.

Philip McMichael, “The Peasant as ‘Canary’? Not too early warning signs of global catastrophe,” Devel­opment Journal.

Pimbert, Michel, Towards Food Sov­ereignty: Reclaiming Autonomous Food Systems, IIED, 2008,

SCIENCE. 12 February 2010 Vol 327. M. Herrero, P. K. Thornton, A. M. Notenbaert, S. Wood, S. Msangi, H. A. Freeman, D. Bossio, J. Dixon, M. Peters, J. van de Steeg, J. Lynam, P. Parthasarathy Rao, S. Macmillan, B. Gerard, J. McDermott, C. Seré, M. Rosegrant. Smart Investments in Sustainable Food Production: Revisiting Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems.

Spencer, D. 2002. The future of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia: W(h)ither the small farm? In Sustainable food security for all by 2020: Proc. Int. Conf. Bonn. 4-6 Sept. 2001. IFPRI, Washington DC

Spencer, D.S.C., P.J. Matlon, and H. Löffler. 2003. African agricultural production and productivity in perspective. InterAcademy Council, Amsterdam

UNEP, 2011, Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication, www.unep.org/greeneconomy

Uwe Hoering, Who Feeds the World? May 2008, Church Develop­ment Service

van der Ploeg, Jan Douwe, The New Peasantries – Struggles for Autonomy and Sustainability in an Era of Empire and Globalization, Earthscan, 2008,

Women Feeding Cities: Main­streaming gender in urban agricul­ture and food security, Edited by Alice Hovorka, Henk de Zeeuw, and Mary Njenga, Practical Action Publishing Ltd, 2009.

Worldwatch Institute. 2011. State of the World 2011

[1] UNEP, 2011, Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication, www.unep.org/greeneconomy

[2] See more about this in A Viable Food Future, Part II, page 13-18 (http://www.utviklingsfondet.no/viablefuture/)

[3] ETC -group. 2009. Who Will Feed Us? Questions for the Food and Climate Crises. www.etcgroup.org/upload/publication/pdf_file/ETC_Who_Will_Feed_Us.pdf )

[4] International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). Global Report, side 8.

[5]. FAO. 2011. GEA4/2011. Working Document 4. Improving Food Sustems for Sustainable Diets in a Green Economy. FAO/OECD Expert Meeting in Greening the Economy with Agriculture, Paris, 5-7 September 2011. Draft: 12 August 2011.

[6]. Ibid

[7]. http://www.food¬first.org/en/node/2115

[8]. FAO Newsroom, 3. juni 2005: «Farming in Urban Areas Can Boost Food Security»

[9] SCIENCE. 12 February 2010 Vol 327. M. Herrero, P. K. Thornton, A. M. Notenbaert, S. Wood, S. Msangi, H. A. Freeman, D. Bossio, J. Dixon, M. Peters, J. van de Steeg, J. Lynam, P. Parthasarathy Rao, S. Macmillan, B. Gerard, J. McDermott, C. Seré, M. Rosegrant. Smart Investments in Sustainable Food Production: Revisiting Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems.

[10] Ibid

[11] Det kongelige utenriksdepartement. Prop. 1 S (2011–2012) Proposisjon til Stortinget (forslag til stortingsvedtak),[The budget proposal from the Norwegian Government for the budget for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 2012] page 40.

[12] Export share of total production of different kind of agricultural products: Rice and grain: 12,3%, milk and diary products: 6,5%, fish and fish products: 38,2%, meat: 9 %, oil and fat: 52%. (Source: FAO. Food Outlook, June 2011).All figures are for 2010 or 2010/2011) Fruit (2004): 6%, vegetables (2004): 3% (Source: Eric Baas. 2006. The world of vegetables. Challenges and opportunities for vegetable suppliers. Rabobank International)

[13] IFAD’s President: Kanayo F. Nwanze. Statement by IFAD President on the measures to enhance global food security: rural development, smallholder farmers and trade considerations. 18 November 2009, FAO, Rome, Italy. http://www.ifad.org/events/op/2009/rt_4.htm