Smallholders produce one-third of the #world’s #food, less than half of what many headlines claim
source: https://ourworldindata.org/smallholder-food-production
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.
...
Smallholder farmers produce 29% of the world’s crops, measured in kilocalories. Less than half of previous claims. They do so using around one-quarter (24%) of the world’s agricultural land. They account for a bit more crop production than land use because smaller farms tend to achieve higher yields. This is very labor-intensive work; smaller farms get higher land productivity, but lower labor productivity.These farms account for an even greater share of the world’s food supply – one-third (32%) of it. This is because smaller farms tend to allocate a larger share of their crops towards food, rather than animal feed or biofuels.
