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FAO. 2023. World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc8166en
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Timely, accurate and high-quality data and statistics are the cornerstone of solid policy design, where decisions are based on hard evidence, and monitoring and evaluation rely on strong statistical systems. This has become all the more critical as governments around the world commit to major sectoral and national development plans, as well as regional and global development agendas.
Statistical work has been at the core of the activities and mandate of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) since the Organization was founded in 1945, supporting its Members in eliminating hunger, improving nutrition, eradicating rural poverty, and promoting inclusive and efficient agrifood systems. FAO is a leading provider of internationally comparable data on food, nutrition and agriculture, which are gathered from national statistical offices and from FAO’s network of partner agencies and are harmonized to paint a global picture. All of these data are summarized in this Statistical Yearbook.
The Statistical Yearbook is a primary tool and indispensable reference for policymakers, researchers and analysts, as well as laypersons interested in the past, present and future paths of food and agriculture. Drawing on the wealth of information that FAO statisticians produce across the Organization, this publication offers a synthesis of the major factors at play in the global food and agricultural landscape. Statistics are presented in four thematic chapters, covering the economic importance of agricultural activities; inputs, outputs and factors of production; implications for food security and nutrition; and agriculture’s impacts on the environment.
This year, special attention is given to the impact of disasters on agriculture, as new information from FAO now quantifies the magnitude of losses resulting from these events. FAO work on estimating food losses, which uses non-conventional data sources, is also featured. Data on the cost and affordability of a healthy diet, which have been released recently in FAOSTAT, are showcased as well and provide a measure of economic access to nutritious foods and healthy diets that are a key link between food security and nutrition. Finally, this edition of the Statistical Yearbook highlights information on the structural characteristics of the agricultural sector coming from censuses of agriculture that users can now easily compare across countries and census rounds for the first time.
This Statistical Yearbook is only one of a series of tools and statistical publications that FAO provides to users. The freely accessible FAOSTAT data platform contains the largest statistical database on food and agriculture in the world, with approximately 20 000 indicators covering more than 245 countries and territories, and around 2 million views each year. The Statistical Yearbook is accompanied by the shorter Statistical Pocketbook, which provides a quick and easy reference to the main facts and trends in food and agriculture.
In addition to compiling and disseminating data, FAO is also involved in strengthening the statistical capacity of countries so they can produce more and better data, set standards and methodologies, and leverage big data innovations. FAO is committed to ensuring free access to current, reliable, timely and trusted data, necessary to chart a course towards more sustainable and equitable agrifood systems and a world free of hunger.
José Rosero Moncayo
Director, Statistics Division
This Statistical Yearbook was prepared by the Statistics Division (ESS) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Communications (OCC), Fisheries and Aquaculture (NFI), Forestry (NFO), Land and Water (NSL) and Markets and Trade (EST) divisions. Olivier Lavagne d’Ortigue led the work under the direction of José Rosero Moncayo (ESS Director). We would like to thank the following for their contributions and input: Iana Arkhipova, Veronica Boero, Carlo Cafiero, Giulia Conchedda, Piero Conforti, Valentina Conti, Christophe Duhamel, Birkan Durak, Adrienne Egger, Tomasz Filipczuk, Laura Galeotti, Chiara Gnetti, Amanda Gordon, Leman Yonca Gürbüzer, Dominique Habimana, Anne Kepple, Irina Kovrova, Arvydas Lebedys, Eun Jeong Lee, Jeannie Marshall, Masakhwe Sharon Mayienga, Patricia Mejias Moreno, Jean-Marie Munyeshyaka, Griffiths Obli Laryea, Xueyao Pan, Giulia Piva, Kimberly Sullivan, Salar Tayyib, Francesco Tubiello, Monica Umena, Stefania Vannuccini, Sara Viviani, Michele Vollaro, Sven Walter, Nathan Wanner, Firas Yassin and Zehra Zaidi.
This Statistical Yearbook is dedicated to the memory of Salar Tayyib (25 January 1960 – 13 October 2023) and Ilio Fornasero (27 May 1967 – 17 November 2023).
The Statistical Yearbook 2023 is divided into four thematic chapters:
• Chapter 1 (Economic dimensions of agriculture) provides an overview of agriculture, forestry and fishing from an economic standpoint.
• Chapter 2 (Production, trade and prices of commodities) presents the outputs of the sector in terms of the production and trade of the different commodities and the evolution of prices.
• Chapter 3 (Food security and nutrition) looks at how some of these outputs are consumed by narrowing the focus on food security and nutrition.
• Chapter 4 (Sustainability and environmental aspects of agriculture) deals with the impacts of the sector as a whole on the environment.
Each chapter draws on the latest available data to describe through text and charts the trends since the early 2000s. As data on each topic are produced according to different schedules and with different methods and sources, the latest year available can change between sections.
The country classification adopted in this publication is based on the United Nations M49 classification (https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/). The official Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) names can be found at https://www.fao.org/nocs/en.
Regional and subregional aggregates are based on the country groupings defined in the United Nations M49 classification. A small subset of indicators used in Part 3 is based on the aggregation rules defined in The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023 report, which can be found at https://doi.org/10.4060/cc3017en.
Two types of aggregations are used: sum and weighted mean. A sufficiency condition is imposed when computing the aggregation – the aggregation is computed only when enough countries have reported data, and the current threshold is set at 50 percent of the variable and the weighting variable, if present.
The cut-off date for the data is 16 October 2023.
• When country data have not been reported for the reference year, an asterisk (*) on the year label indicates that the value for the most recent year available is shown. For example, 2019–2021* means that the most recent value for the period from 2019 to 2021 is shown.
• A billion is 1 000 million.
• A trillion is 1 000 billion.
• In data tables:
• A blank means that data are not available or that aggregates cannot be calculated because of missing data for the years shown.
• 0 or 0.0 means zero or a number that is small enough to round to zero at the displayed number of decimal places.
• <2.5 means a proportion less than 2.5 percent.
• <0.1 means less than 100 000 people.
1. Value added of agriculture, forestry and fishing by region
2. Share of agriculture, forestry and fishing value added in total GDP by region (USD 2015 prices)
B1. Estimated crops and livestock losses due to disasters by region (1991–2021)
3. World agricultural land by use
5. World agricultural land by use and main countries (2021)
6. Cropland area per capita by region
7. Area equipped for irrigation by region
8. Share of area equipped for irrigation in cropland area by region
9. Share of water withdrawal by agriculture in total withdrawal, top countries (2020)
10. Employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing by region
11. Share of agriculture, forestry and fishing employment in total employment by region
12. Share of women in agriculture, forestry and fishing employment, top countries (2021)
16. Pesticide use per cropland area by region
17. Inorganic fertilizer use by region
18. Inorganic fertilizer use by nutrient and region
19. Inorganic fertilizer use per cropland area by nutrient and region
20. World production of primary crops by commodity group
21. World production of primary crops, main commodities
22. World production of main primary crops by main producers (2021)
23. World production of vegetable oils, main commodities
24. World production of main vegetable oils by main producers (2020)
25. World production of raw sugar, main producers
26. World production of meat, main items
27. World production of main meat items, main producers (2021)
28. World production of bovine milk
29. World production of hen eggs
B2. Food loss percentage by region
30. World capture fisheries and aquaculture production by species group
31. World capture fisheries and aquaculture production by production mode
32. World capture fisheries and aquaculture production by main producers (2021)
33. World production of roundwood by type
34. World production of roundwood by type, main producers (2021)
35. World production of selected forest products
36. Value of world food exports by group
38. Food imports and exports by main groups and region (2021)
39. World exports of cereals by main commodities
40. Main traded cereals, top importers and exporters (quantities, 2021)
41. Value of world forest product exports
42. FAO Food Price Index, world (2014–2016=100)
43. FAO food commodity price indices, world (2014–2016=100)
44. FAO FISH PRICE INDEX, WORLD (2014–2016=100)
45. Annual changes in prices received by farmers, top and bottom countries (2022)
46. Inflation in food consumer prices by region
47. Prevalence of undernourishment by region
48. Number of people undernourished by region
49. Food insecurity levels based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale by region
50. Food insecurity levels by region and sex (2022)
B3. Cost of a healthy diet in 2021 and change compared with 2020
51. Average dietary energy supply by region
52. Cereal import dependency ratio, top countries (2018–2020)
53. Dietary energy supply by region and commodity group
54. Average protein supply by region and origin
55. Average dietary supply adequacy by region
56. Prevalence of stunting in children under 5 years by region
57. Prevalence of obesity in the adult population by region
58. Prevalence of obesity in the adult population, top countries (2016)
59. Share of land area by type and region
60. Share of forest area in total land area, top countries (2021)
61. World primary crops harvested area by commodity group
62. World area under organic agriculture, main countries (2021)
63. Share of area under organic agriculture in total agricultural area, top countries (2021)
B4. Average holdings’ area by census round, top countries
64. Water stress, top countries (2020)
65. Cropland nitrogen budget by component and region
66. World greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood systems
67. World farm-gate greenhouse gas emissions by activity
68. World emissions intensity of agricultural commodities (2021)
69. Temperature change measured over land by region
1. Value added of agriculture, forestry and fishing (USD million, 2015 prices)
2. Share of agriculture, forestry and fishing value added in total GDP (USD 2015 prices) (percent)
3. Agricultural land by use (thousand ha)
4. Cropland area per capita (ha per capita)
5. Area equipped for irrigation (thousand ha)
6. Share of area equipped for irrigation in cropland area (percent)
7. Share of water withdrawal by agriculture in total withdrawal (percent)
8. Employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing (thousand people)
9. Share of agriculture, forestry and fishing employment in total employment (percent)
10. Share of women in agriculture, forestry and fishing employment (percent)
14. Pesticide use per cropland area (kg per ha)
15. Inorganic fertilizer use by nutrient (thousand tonnes)
16. Inorganic fertilizer use per cropland area by nutrient (kg per ha)
17. Production of primary crops by group, 2021 (thousand tonnes)
18. Production value of primary crops by group, 2021 (USD million, 2014–2016 prices)
19. Production of primary crops main commodities, 2021 (thousand tonnes)
20. Production of vegetable oils main commodities (thousand tonnes)
21. Production of raw sugar (thousand tonnes)
22. Production of meat (thousand tonnes)
23. Production of bovine milk (thousand tonnes)
24. Production of hen eggs (thousand tonnes)
25. Capture fisheries and aquaculture production, 2021 (thousand tonnes)
26. Capture fisheries and aquaculture production by mode (thousand tonnes)
27. Production of roundwood by type (thousand m3)
28. Production of selected forest products, 2021
29. Food exports, 2021 (USD million)
30. Food net trade (USD million)
31. Food imports, 2021 (USD million)
32. Cereals exports (thousand tonnes)
33. Cereals imports and exports by main commodities, 2021 (thousand tonnes)
34. Forest products exports, 2021 (USD million)
35. FAO food price indices (2014–2016=100)
36. Annual changes in prices received by farmers (percent)
37. Inflation in food consumer prices (percent)
38. Prevalence of undernourishment (percent)
39. People undernourished (million)
40. Food insecurity levels (percent)
41. Food insecurity levels by sex (percent)
42. Average dietary energy supply (kcal per capita per day)
43. Cereal import dependency ratio (percent)
44. Dietary energy supply by commodity group, 2021 (kcal per capita per day)
45. Average protein supply by origin (g per capita per day)
46. Average dietary supply adequacy (percent)
47. Prevalence of stunting in children under 5 years (percent)
48. Prevalence of obesity in the adult population (percent)
49. Land area by type (thousand ha)
50. Share of forest area in total land area (percent)
51. Primary crops harvested area by commodity group, 2021 (thousand ha)
52. Area under organic agriculture (thousand ha)
53. Share of area under organic agriculture in total agricultural area (percent)
55. Cropland nitrogen budget (kg per ha)
56. Greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood systems, 2021 (million tonnes CO2eq)
57. Farm-gate greenhouse gas emissions by activity, 2021 (million tonnes CO2eq)
58. Emissions intensity of agricultural commodities, 2021 (kg CO2eq per kg)
59. Temperature change measured over land (degree Celsius)
1. Value added of agriculture, forestry and fishing by region (2021)
2. Share of agriculture, forestry and fishing value added in total GDP (2021, USD 2015 prices)
3. Employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing (2021)
4. Share of agriculture, forestry and fishing employment in total employment (2021)
8. Inorganic fertilizer use (2021)
9. Production of cereals (2021)
10. Production of sugar cane (2021)
11. Production of maize (2021)
13. Production of wheat (2021)
14. Production of oil palm fruit (2021)
15. Production of potatoes (2021)
16. Production of chicken meat (2021)
17. Production of PIG meat (2021)
18. Production of cattle meat (2021)
19. Production of bovine milk (2021)
20. capture fisheries and aquaculture production (2021)
21. Aquaculture production (2021)
22. Importers and exporters of forest products (2021)
23. Importers and exporters of food (2021)
24. Inflation in food consumer prices (2022 average)
25. Prevalence of undernourishment (2020–2022 average)
26. Number of undernourished people (2020–2022 average)
27. Prevalence of stunting in children under 5 years (2022)
28. Prevalence of obesity in the adult population (2016)
29. Share of forest area in land area (2021)
30. Total renewable water resources per capita (2020)
32. Greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood systems (2021)
1. Focus on the impact of disasters on agriculture and food security
The global value added generated by agriculture, forestry and fishinga grew by 84 percent in real terms between 2000 and 2021, reaching USD 3.7 trillion in 2021 (see FIGURE 1). This represents an increase of USD 1.7 trillion compared with 2000. In Africa, the value added went up 150 percent over the period, increasing from USD 170 billion to USD 425 billion. Given its size, Asia was the main contributor to global agriculture, forestry and fishing value added with 65 percent of the world total in 2021: the continent shows a doubling from USD 1.2 trillion in 2000 to USD 2.4 trillion in 2021. In the Americas and Oceania, the increase reached 45–46 percent in the 2000–2021 period, while Europe increased its agricultural value added by just 19 percent. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the value added of agriculture increased in 2020 for the world as a whole and all the regions except Europe. It increased even more in 2021, by 3.1 percent, as activity rebounded. The countries with the largest agriculture, forestry and fishing sector in terms of value added in 2021 are China, India and the United States of America (see TABLE 1).
Until 2019, the global contribution of agriculture to gross domestic product (GDP) declined, which is expected to accompany the growth of total GDP. Due to the pandemic and the various restrictions put in place to contain it in 2020, the value added of the industry and services sectors declined while that of agriculture kept increasing, resulting in an artificial jump of the share of agriculture in the total in 2020 (see FIGURE 2). The share of value added from agriculture, forestry and fishing resumed its declining trend, falling from 4.4 percent in 2020 to 4.3 percent in 2021. It had dropped between 2000 and 2019 in all regions except Africa and the Americas, then increased between 2019 and 2020. All regions except the Americas had a share of agriculture in GDP in 2021 that was higher than in 2019, and in the case of Africa, also higher than in 2000 (14.5 percent in 2000 compared with 15.5 percent in 2021). This increase, which is seldom observed, is due to a higher contribution of agriculture to GDP, largely related to the COVID-19 pandemic, in several countries – Algeria, Angola, Benin, Chad, the Comoros, the Congo, Eritrea, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, the Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa. These countries accounted for 46 percent of the total value added from agriculture, forestry and fishing in Africa in 2021 (see TABLE 2). Despite its relatively small economic size, the sector plays a crucial role in the agro-industry value chain and in the use of natural resources. As such, agriculture affects the quality of the environment and food security beyond what its contribution to GDP indicates.
Disasters are estimated to have caused production losses in crops and livestock valued at USD 3.8 trillion between 1991 and 2021, corresponding to an average loss of USD 123 billion per year, or 5 percent of annual global agricultural GDP.1 FIGURE B1 presents the geographical distribution and the economic impact of these losses. Asia has the largest loss (USD 1 720 billion), reflecting its overall geographic size, followed by the Americas (USD 827 billion), Europe (USD 660 billion), Africa (USD 580 billion) and Oceania (USD 55 billion). Presenting the estimated losses as a share of the agricultural GDP of the regions highlights the differentiated economic impact. The share of losses in agricultural GDP is the highest in Africa (7.7 percent), followed by the Americas (7.5 percent), Europe (7.2 percent), Oceania (4.8 percent) and Asia (3.6 percent). Even though Asia has the highest loss in absolute terms, it has a relatively small impact given the magnitude of its production. In contrast, Africa, the Americas and Europe appear more affected proportionally to their agricultural sector.
In 2021, the global agricultural land area was 4.79 billion hectares (ha), down 2 percent, or 0.09 billion ha compared with 2000 (see FIGURE 3 and TABLE 3). Between 2000 and 2021, roughly two-thirds of agricultural land were used for permanent meadows and pastures (3.21 billion ha in 2021), which declined by 5 percent (0.17 billion ha). One-third of the total agricultural land was cropland (1.58 billion ha in 2021), which increased by 6 percent (0.09 billion ha). Although agricultural land decreased since 2000, it increased on average by 0.1 percent each year between 1961 and 2021, with a significant expansion up to the 1990s.2
The regional breakdown of the global cropland area varied marginally between 2000 and 2021 (see FIGURE 4). Asia had the largest share of the global cropland area in 2021 (37 percent), followed by the Americas (24 percent), Africa (19 percent), Europe (18 percent) and Oceania (2 percent). Nonetheless, there were differences in cropland expansion in the different regions during this period – Oceania and Africa both had rapid growth in cropland area (33 percent and 27 percent, respectively), while Asia and the Americas had more moderate growth (4 percent and 2 percent, respectively). The cropland area of Europe declined between 2000 and 2021 by 5 percent. As a result, the cropland area of Africa overtook that of Europe in 2018.
Approximately 30 percent of global cropland and permanent meadows and pastures can be found in three countries (see FIGURE 5), which are not necessarily the ones with the largest country area.b In 2021, 12 percent of global permanent meadows and pastures belonged to China, 10 percent to Australia, and 8 percent to the United States of America. For the same year, the largest share of global cropland was in India (11 percent), followed by the United States of America (10 percent) and China (8 percent). Extensive grasslands versus croplands in agricultural land can indicate intensified livestock practices as opposed to harvesting crops.
Cropland area per capita decreased in all regions between 2000 and 2021 as population increased faster than the cropland area (see FIGURE 6). The world average declined by 18 percent to 0.20 ha per capita in 2021; the decrease was the largest in Africa (−25 percent, to 0.21 ha per capita), followed by the Americas and Asia (−17 percent each, to 0.37 ha per capita and 0.13 ha per capita, respectively), Europe and Oceania (−7 percent each, to 0.39 ha per capita and 0.77 ha per capita, respectively). Against this backdrop, the increase in agricultural production over the same period (described in Chapter 2) indicates higher efficiency in feeding the population with limited land resources. The countries with the highest cropland area per capita are Kazakhstan, Australia and Canada (see TABLE 4), due to vast areas of land available over sparsely populated areas. Other reasons for high values include the intense use of agricultural inputs over cropland and dependencies on agricultural imports or food aid.
The development of irrigation is one aspect of agriculture intensification that has allowed total production to grow much faster than the cultivated area.
The global land area equipped for irrigation reached 352 million ha in 2021 (see FIGURE 7), an increase of 22 percent from the 289 million ha of 2000 and more than twice the 1960s land area equipped for irrigation.3 The vast majority is located in Asia (70 percent), where irrigation was a key component of the green revolution;4 the Americas account for 16 percent and Europe for 8 percent of the world total. As shown in TABLE 5, India (76 million ha) and China (75 million ha) have the largest equipped area for irrigation, far ahead of the United States of America (27 million ha). China and India also have the largest net gains in equipped area between 2000 and 2020 (+21 million ha for China and +15 million ha for India). All the regions saw increases in the area equipped for irrigation, with Africa growing the fastest (+29 percent), followed by Asia (+25 percent), Oceania (+24 percent), the Americas (+19 percent) and Europe (+2 percent).
The share of the area equipped for irrigation in cropland area increased to 22.3 percent in 2021, up 2.9 percentage points compared with 2000 (see FIGURE 8). It increased in all regions except Oceania, with the largest gains located in Asia, as described above. The higher levels in Asia compared to the rest of the world are partly attributable to the prevalence of irrigation-intensive rice cultivation in the region. As seen in TABLE 6, Turkmenistan, Egypt and Uzbekistan stand out as countries with both a sizeable cropland area and very high shares of equipped area for irrigation (99.8 percent, 98.9 percent and 97.7 percent in 2021, respectively); most of their land area is desert with an arid climate. Countries with low shares are more dependent on rainfed agriculture, which is affected by changing rain patterns and tends to be more extensive than irrigated agriculture. On the other hand, irrigated agriculture competes with other uses of the water resources available in countries.
The share of agricultural water withdrawals in total withdrawals is an indication of the relative weight of agricultural water uses compared to the industrial and municipal ones. As seen in FIGURE 9, the countries with the highest shares are located mostly in Africa and Asia, with the share of Somalia above 99 percent. One trait shared by most of these countries is the income level: out of the top 20 countries, the World Bank classifies 6 as low-income, 12 as lower-middle income, 1 as upper-middle income and 1 as high-income.5 In 2020, the share of agricultural water withdrawals in total withdrawals was greater than 90 percent in 29 countries (see TABLE 7).
The number of people working in agriculture worldwide, including forestry and fishing, went down 15 percent between 2000 and 2021, reaching 873 million in 2021, or 154 million less than in 2000 (see FIGURE 10). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen in the values of 2020 and 2021: the decline between 2019 and 2020 due to the restrictions and the decline in activity contrasts with the stability observed between 2018 and 2019, while the rebound experienced in 2021 translated into an increase of employment in agriculture of 18 million people (with increases in Africa, the Americas and Asia, and decreases in Europe and Oceania).c Between 2000 and 2021, agricultural employment has declined from 787 million people to 581 million in Asia: this means that more than one out of every four agricultural workers has left the sector for another job outside agriculture in the region. During the same period, the biggest drop was observed in Europe, as agricultural employment there has decreased by 49 percent from 34 million, which represents a decrease of 17 million people. During the same period, even if the share of employment in agriculture declined in Africa (see FIGURE 11), agricultural employment increased to 229 million people in 2021. India and China had the largest number of people working in agriculture in 2021 (206 million people and 184 million people, respectively); together they accounted for two-thirds of agricultural employment in Asia and 45 percent of global agricultural employment in 2021 – even though 11 million people left the agriculture sector between 2000 and 2021 in India and 171 million in China (see TABLE 8).
The share of employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing in total employment declined globally by 13 percentage points between 2000 and 2021, to 26.6 percent (see FIGURE 11). Yet, agriculture remains the second largest source of employment worldwide after the services sector.6 A decline in the share of the agricultural sector is usually linked to growing income levels, which explains the drop in the share of employment in agriculture across all regions and nearly all the countries (see TABLE 9). The COVID-19 pandemic broke this overall declining trend in 2020: while employment dropped in all sectors due to the COVID-19 restrictions, the industry and services sector were much more affected than agriculture, resulting in an increase of the share of agricultural employment in all regions except Europe and Oceania between 2019 and 2020, followed by a decline in 2021. The lowest share of employment in agriculture was observed in Europe in 2021, where only 5.1 percent of the employed population had a job in agriculture. The highest share was observed in Africa with 48.0 percent of the total employed population.
FIGURE 12 shows the countries with the highest shares of women in agricultural employment. While on average women represented 37.8 percent of all agricultural workers in 2021, this share is above 50 percent in 22 countries (see TABLE 10), most of them in Africa. Women and men working in agriculture might have different employment status. Generally, the women employed in agriculture are more likely to be engaged as contributing family workers whereas men are more likely to be engaged on their own account as workers generating an income.7 In addition, women often spend more time than men on activities such as food processing and food preparation for the household, child and elder care, water and fuel collection and other unpaid household duties.8
Capital in the agriculture sector includes the machinery, equipment and tools as well as the farm buildings, and is essential in the production of all agricultural outputs. The gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) is an indication of the amounts that are reinvested in new fixed assets that are part of capital.
High-income countries tend to devote a higher share of their agriculture value added to reinvestments in the sector than countries with lower levels of income (see FIGURE 13 and TABLE 11). The three countries with the higher share of GFCF in value added in 2021 are all in Europe: Latvia (77 percent), Belgium (76 percent) and Estonia (57 percent). The leaders of the other regions had much lower shares: 34 percent for Australia, 26 percent for the United States of America and Japan, and 20 percent for South Africa.
Government spending on agriculture is a measure of the public financial support to the sector and complements investments made by the private sector. Asia and Africa had the highest percentage of central government spending on agriculture between 2000 and 2021.9 FIGURE 14 and TABLE 12 reflect this, as most of the countries with the highest shares are in these two regions, with Bhutan (12.8 percent), Iceland (12.4 percent), and Zimbabwe (12.2 percent) as the top three countries. In the case of Africa, signatories to the Malabo Declaration of 2014 committed to allocate at least 10 percent of government expenditures to agriculture.10
Global pesticides use increased between 2000 and 2021 by 62 percent, to 3.5 million tonnes in 2021 (see FIGURE 15). Nearly all the increase took place between 2000 and 2016, with a small decline until 2018 and renewed growth afterwards. The highest contributions came from the Americas, followed by Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania.d The share of the Americas, the largest contributor, increased from 41 percent to 50 percent of global pesticides consumption while that of Asia and Europe decreased by 5–6 percentage points to 28 percent and 14 percent, respectively. Africa and Oceania applied small amounts of pesticides over time, but Africa nonetheless had the highest growth in pesticides applications (+176 percent). As shown in TABLE 13, Brazil was the largest pesticide user in 2021 with 0.72 million tonnes, or 20 percent of the world total, far ahead of the United States of America (0.46 million tonnes) and Indonesia (0.28 million tonnes).
Global pesticides use per cropland area went up 35 percent in the 2000s, from 1.5 kg/ha to 2.0 kg/ha; growth slowed down afterwards to just 14 percent between 2010 and 2021 (see FIGURE 16), although with some important regional differences. Pesticides application rates in 2021 were highest in the Americas by a wide margin (4.7 kg/ha), followed by Oceania, Europe, Asia and Africa. Asia and Europe were the only regions where pesticides use per cropland area decreased between the early 2010s and 2021. Among the top pesticides users in 2021 mentioned above, Brazil had the largest use per cropland area (10.9 kg/ha), close to four times the value for the United States of America (2.9 kg/ha) and almost six times the value for China (1.9 kg/ha) (see TABLE 14).
Total agricultural use of inorganic fertilizers, expressed as the sum of the three nutrients nitrogen (N), phosphorus (expressed as P2O5) and potassium (expressed as K2O), was 195 million tonnes in 2021. As shown in FIGURE 17, the breakdown was 109 million tonnes of nitrogen (56 percent of the total), 46 million tonnes of phosphorus (24 percent) and 40 million tonnes of potassium (21 percent). The overall fertilizer use in 2021 was 60 million tonnes, or 44 percent, higher than in 2000 (34 percent higher for nitrogen, 43 percent higher for phosphorus and 85 percent higher for potassium).
Asia represented 53 percent of world total agricultural use of inorganic fertilizers in 2021, followed by the Americas (29 percent), Europe (12 percent), Africa (4 percent) and Oceania (2 percent). This ranking of the regions is the same for all nutrients. The main users of inorganic fertilizers are, in descending order, China, India, Brazil and the United States of America (see TABLE 15), with China the largest user of each nutrient.
Fertilizer use increased in all regions between 2000 and 2021 (see FIGURE 18). The total for the three nutrients went up 32 million tonnes – the largest increase in absolute terms – in Asia, or 44 percent. The fastest increase took place in Africa, with a growth of 97 percent equivalent to just 4 million tonnes due to the low starting level. In the Americas, fertilizer use posted a 67 percent increase, or 23 million tonnes, while in Oceania it went up 13 percent (or 0.4 million tonnes) compared to 7 percent in Europe (or 1.5 million tonnes).
The mix of nutrients varies across the regions. Nitrogen is the dominant nutrient, accounting for 63 percent of fertilizer use in both Europe and Africa, 58 percent in Asia, and around half of the total in Oceania (51 percent) and the Americas (48 percent). The use of phosphorus accounts for 18 to 25 percent of the total in all the regions except Oceania, where its share is 35 percent. The share of potassium in fertilizer use is the highest in the Americas with 27 percent, followed by Europe (19 percent), Asia (18 percent), Africa and Oceania (14 percent each). The use of phosphorus declined in Oceania between 2000 and 2021, while the use of potassium declined in Europe over the same period.
World agricultural use of inorganic fertilizers per cropland area rose by 38 percent between 2000 and 2021, to 119 kg of nutrients per hectare – expressed as the sum of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (see FIGURE 19). This corresponds to an increase of 33 kg/ha compared with 2000. Of the total amount, 65 kg/ha correspond to nitrogen (up 28 percent), 29 kg/ha to phosphorus (up 37 percent) and 24 kg/ha to potassium (up 78 percent).
Fertilizer use per cropland area in 2021 was the highest in Asia, at 176 kg/ha, followed by the Americas (139 kg/ha), Europe (75 kg/ha), Oceania (65 kg/ha) and Africa (26 kg/ha), as shown on FIGURE 19 and TABLE 16. With a growth rate of 67 percent between 2000 and 2021, the Americas was the region with the fastest increase in fertilizer use per cropland area, ahead of Africa (+57 percent), Asia (+37 percent) and Europe (+16 percent) – Oceania is the only region showing a decrease (−11 percent).
The global production of primary crops increased by 54 percent between 2000 and 2021, to 9.5 billion tonnes, which is 2 percent higher than in 2020 (see FIGURE 20 and TABLE 17). This represents 3.3 billion tonnes more than in 2000. With slightly less than one-third of the total, cereals were the main group of crops produced in 2021, followed by sugar crops (22 percent), vegetables and oil crops (12 percent each). Fruit, and roots and tubers each accounted for 9–10 percent of the total production. The increase in production is mostly attributable to a combination of factors seen in Chapter 1 (increased use of irrigation, pesticides and fertilizers, and to a lesser extent a larger cultivated area); other factors such as better farming practices11 and the use of high-yield crops12 also play a role.
The value of primary crops production increased at a slightly higher pace in real terms as the quantities produced (57 percent), from USD 1.8 trillion in 2000 to USD 2.8 trillion in 2021. As with quantities produced, cereals accounted for the largest share in the total production value in 2021 (30 percent). Vegetables and fruit represented 19 percent and 17 percent, respectively, of the total value in 2021, which is significantly higher than the shares in quantities. The shares of oil crops and roots and tubers in the total value were similar to the shares in quantities. Sugar crops represented 4 percent of the total value: such a discrepancy with the share of the quantities produced is due to differences in price compared to fruit and vegetables, and to the fact that the transformation into refined sugar is adding the most value.
While a multitude of crops are cultivated and harvested around the world, just four individual crops accounted for half the global production of primary crops in 2021: sugar cane (20 percent of the total, with 1.9 billion tonnes), maize (13 percent, with 1.2 billion tonnes), wheat and rice (8 percent each, with 0.8 billion tonnes) – see FIGURE 21. Oil palm fruit and potatoes each accounted for an additional 4 percent of world crop production.
Sugar cane accounted for around 21 percent of the global crop production over the 2000–2021 period. While maize, wheat and rice each represented 10 percent of the total in 2000, maize production grew three times faster than that of wheat or rice during the period, surpassing rice in 2001 to become the second most produced crop worldwide. As seen in TABLE 19, the Americas was the leading region in the production of sugar cane (52 percent of the world total) and maize (49 percent) in 2021, while Asia led in the production of rice (90 percent), oil palm fruit (88 percent), potatoes (53 percent) and wheat (44 percent).
FIGURE 22 shows that for each main crop commodity, the top three producers combined account for a significant share of the world total: 42–45 percent for wheat and potatoes, around 60 to 66 percent for sugar cane, maize and rice, and close to 90 percent for oil palm fruit in 2021. For each crop, the top producer also has a sizeable share of the global output: in 2021, Brazil accounted for 38 percent of world sugar cane production, the United States of America grew 32 percent of the global production for maize, China (which ranked in the top three producers for five out of the six main crop commodities) produced about 25 percent of the world output of rice and potatoes, and 18 percent of the world output of wheat, while 62 percent of oil palm fruit production originated in Indonesia. Such a concentration can have a large impact on prices when harvests are affected – either positively or negatively – in the main producing countries that export part of their production.
Most primary crops can be consumed unprocessed, but two crop groups in particular require processing for the production of commodities used both as food and fuel: oil crops and sugar crops. Therefore, they have an impact on nutrition and health, but also on energy and the environment.
The global production of vegetable oils went up 125 percent between 2000 and 2020, to 208 million tonnes in 2020 (see FIGURE 23 and TABLE 20). This is 115 million tonnes more than in 2000, but 4 million tonnes less than in 2019. Palm oil registered the largest increase, both absolute and relative, as its production went up 54 million tonnes, or 241 percent; it overtook soybean oil as the main vegetable oil produced in 2006. The use of palm oil for biodiesel explains most of this spectacular growth.13 The other main vegetable oils produced in 2020 are rapeseed oil, accounting for 12 percent of global vegetable oil production (down from 15 percent in 2000), and sunflower oil, which accounted for 10 percent of total vegetable oil production (down from 11 percent in 2000).
As with primary crops, the production of the main vegetable oils is heavily concentrated in a handful of countries (see FIGURE 24). The concentration is highest with palm oil, as 85 percent of global production came from two countries in 2020: Indonesia (60 percent) and Malaysia (25 percent). This mirrors the shares of the top producers of oil palm fruit shown in FIGURE 22. In 2020, the top three producers accounted for 63–64 percent of the production of sunflower oil and soybean oil, and for 45 percent of the production of rapeseed oil. China was the main producer of soybean oil, with a share of 27 percent in 2020 and the United States of America a distant second with a share of 19 percent. The difference between the first and second producer was much smaller for rapeseed and sunflower oil: Canada led the production of rapeseed oil in 2020, with 17 percent of the world total, just ahead of Germany (16 percent), while Ukraine produced 29 percent of the global sunflower oil output in 2020, with the Russian Federation a close second (27 percent).
The global production of raw sugar reached 173 million tonnes in 2020, up 30 percent compared with 2000, or 40 million tonnes (see FIGURE 25 and TABLE 21). Nevertheless, this is the lowest level since 2011 as production declined for two consecutive years in 2019 and 2020. As sugar cane, the main sugar crop, grows in tropical regions, the main producing countries are located there. Brazil became again the top sugar producer in 2020 after drops in sugar production in 2018 and 2019 due to dry weather and higher ethanol prices that make producing sugar less profitable – it experienced a 39 percent increase between 2019 and 2020. India was in the opposite situation, as its sugar production went down 16 percent between 2019 and 2020. The other main producers each accounted for 3 to 6 percent of the total production in 2020, with the Russian Federation relying only on sugar beet for sugar production.
World meat production reached 357 million tonnes in 2021, up 53 percent, or 124 million tonnes compared with 2000 (see FIGURE 26). The increase in production between 2020 and 2021 reached 4 percent, which is the fastest over the 2000–2021 period. Although many species are raised for their meat, only three accounted for nearly 90 percent of the global production between 2000 and 2021: chicken, pig and cattle (not taking into account the different breeds for each). With 34 percent of the global production in 2021, chicken meat showed the largest growth in absolute and relative terms since 2000 (+107 percent, or 63 million tonnes) and was the most produced type of meat in 2021. Pig meat also represented 34 percent of the total in 2021, compared to 39 percent in 2000 and 32 percent in 2020. African swine fever started affecting Asian countries in late 2018 and continued in 2019 and 2020. It resulted in an 11 million tonnes decrease in world pig meat production between 2018 and 2019, with China being hardest hit, and kept constraining production in 2020. However, pig meat production rebounded in 2021 to 120 million tonnes (+11 percent) – above the 2018 level – and drove the strong increase in global meat production mentioned above. The share of cattle meat dropped from 24 percent in 2000 to 20 percent in 2020.
The market concentration of meat production is not as strong as for primary crops and vegetable oils, even though the top three producers accounted for 60 percent of world pig meat production and 41–42 percent of global chicken and cattle meat production in 2021 (see FIGURE 27 and TABLE 22). China and the United States of America are among the three largest producers for each main meat type: in particular, China alone accounted for 45 percent of world pig meat in 2021, and the United States of America produced 17 to 18 percent of world chicken and cattle meat. The difference between the two countries is that meat production in China is mostly for the domestic market, whereas a significant share of American meat production (especially in the case of chicken) is exported.14
The global production of bovine milk (cattle and buffalo milk), which accounted for 96 percent of the global milk production in 2021, rose by 58 percent to 884 million tonnes in 2021, an increase of 328 million tonnes compared with 2000 (see FIGURE 28). Unlike meat production, the increase in milk production between 2020 and 2021 was the smallest in the 2000–2021 period (0.5 percent). Asia was the largest milk-producing region in 2021 with a 44 percent share of the total, ahead of Europe (26 percent), the Americas (22 percent), Africa (5 percent) and Oceania (3 percent). In particular, milk production in Asia went up 142 percent between 2000 and 2021, from 159 million tonnes to 384 million tonnes mostly due to the increase in India (126 million tonnes), which was the largest producer with a 23 percent share of the global total in 2021. With an 11 percent share, the United States of America was the second largest producer; the other main producers (Pakistan, China, Brazil, Germany, the Russian Federation and France) each accounted for 3 to 7 percent of the global production. The combined share of the top three milk producers was 41 percent of the total, the same as in 2020, even though the share has been steadily increasing since 2000 (see TABLE 23).
In 2021, world hen eggs production reached 86 million tonnes, a 0.8 percent decrease compared with 2020 but a 69 percent increase from the 2000 level, which translates into an additional 36 million tonnes over the period (see FIGURE 29). Asia was by far the main producing region, accounting for 62 percent of the global production in 2021, followed by the Americas (21 percent), Europe (13 percent), Africa (4 percent) and Oceania (0.4 percent). Production growth rates were well above 70 percent in all the regions but Europe, where it grew by just 18 percent (see TABLE 24); as a result, its share in the world total dropped from 18 percent to 13 percent. With 34 percent of the total, China ranked as the largest hen egg producing country; the other main producers (the United States of America, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and the Russian Federation) combined barely surpassed it. Together, the top three producers accounted for nearly half the global hen eggs production in 2021.
FAO has refined the estimation of food losses that was first published in The State of Food and Agriculture 2019, revising the model and expanding the coverage to include subregions. FIGURE B2 shows that the food loss percentage was stable for the world, moving from 13 percent in 2016 to 13.2 percent in 2021. Regions where the food loss percentage increased are Latin America and the Caribbean (which shows the largest increase, from 12.2 percent in 2016 to 14.5 percent in 2021), Western Asia and Northern Africa, and Australia and New Zealand. Conversely, the food loss percentage went down in Central Asia and Southern Asia, Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand (which show the largest decrease of 1.2 percentage points between 2016 and 2021), sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia. The food loss percentage remained unchanged in Northern America and Europe, which had the lowest value among all regions in 2021 (9.2 percent), while sub-Saharan Africa had the highest (20 percent). These variations should be interpreted as oscillations only since no report on the trend can be made yet.
The FAO Data Lab supports the estimation of food losses by scraping the internet for openly accessible publications from which non-conventional data are extracted and used for modelling and filling data gaps. These estimates will slowly be replaced by official data as more countries have put data collection efforts in place.
Excluding algae, total world fisheries and aquaculture production showed a 45 percent growth between 2000 and 2021, reaching 182 million tonnes in 2021 and setting a new production record (the previous one was 179 million tonnes in 2018). This represents an overall expansion of 56 million tonnes compared to 2000. In 2021, the total fisheries and aquaculture production (excluding algae) rose significantly (+2.7 percent) compared with 2020 after two years of relative decline.
Thousands of species are harvested every year, with the quantities and specific species varying from country to country. Finfish (freshwater, diadromous and marine fish) had a share of 76 percent of the total in 2021, with a slight decline compared to 79 percent in 2000. With 38 percent of the total, marine fish were the main group of species produced in 2021, followed by freshwater fish (33 percent), molluscs (14 percent) and crustaceans (10 percent) (see FIGURE 30 and TABLE 25). Thanks to the expansion of aquaculture production, freshwater fish experienced major growth (+144 percent) between 2000 and 2021, going from about 25 million tonnes in 2000 (19 percent of the total) to 60 million tonnes in 2020 (33 percent of the total). Other major increases were experienced by crustaceans (+129 percent) and diadromous fish (+109 percent).
The significant expansion of the fisheries and aquaculture production came with many transformations, including changes in the source of production being increasingly dependent on aquaculture. In the last three decades, aquaculture has been the main driver of the increase in fisheries and aquaculture production, with an average growth of 5.0 percent per year between 2000 and 2021, reaching a record 90.9 million tonnes in 2021. At the global level, after several decades of sustained growth, capture fisheries production has been rather stable at around 90 million tonnes since the early 1990s, with some inter-annual fluctuations in the range of 3 to 6 million tonnes. These fluctuations have been mainly determined by variations in catches of anchoveta in South America, particularly affected by climatic change variability, but they also depended on the productivity of ecosystems, fishing intensity management and fish stock status. In 2021, capture fisheries production reached 91.2 million tonnes, down from its 2018 peak of 96.2 million tonnes, representing 50 percent of total production for the first time ever. Aquaculture accounted for the remaining 50 percent of the global total. Yet, its share in total production varied significantly across continents, going from 63 percent in Asia in 2021 to 21 percent in Europe, 19 percent in the Americas, 18 percent in Africa and 14 percent in Oceania.
As seen in TABLE 26, Asia played a major role in the overall growth of fisheries and aquaculture production and represented 70 percent of total production in 2021 compared to 57 percent in 2000. In 2021, the Americas had a share of 13 percent, followed by Europe (9 percent), Africa (7 percent) and Oceania (1 percent). China is by far the main producer for both capture fisheries and aquaculture, with a 36 percent share of the total production in 2021, compared with 30 percent in 2000. In 2021, other major producers were India and Indonesia, and these three countries together represented 51 percent of total fisheries and aquaculture production. These three countries were also the dominant producers for aquaculture, while for capture fisheries China and Indonesia were followed by Peru in 2021. The overall share of the top three producers was 73 percent of aquaculture and 30 percent of capture fisheries in 2021. Despite this concentration of production, aquaculture has experienced growth across the world, with the unequal rates reflecting differences in local policy, management objectives, site opportunities and environmental factors.
In addition, 36.3 million tonnes of algae were produced in 2021, the bulk of which (97 percent) originating from culture-based practices. If algae are included, the overall fisheries and aquaculture production reached 218 million tonnes in 2021, with aquaculture representing 58 percent of the total.
Global production of roundwood rose from 3.5 billion m3 in 2000 to 4 billion m3 in 2021, which represents a 15 percent increase over the period and a 2 percent increase compared with 2020 (see FIGURE 33). In 2021, wood fuel was the main product with a 49 percent share of the total (2 billion m3), followed by coniferous industrial roundwood with 30 percent (1.2 billion m3) and non-coniferous industrial roundwood with 21 percent (0.9 billion m3). In particular, the rebound has remained strong after the decline in coniferous industrial roundwood production in 2009, which resulted in the lowest total roundwood production during the 2000–2021 period. As seen in TABLE 27, Asia and the Americas are the two main producing regions, accounting for 29 and 28 percent of the total roundwood production, respectively; Africa and Europe have similar shares of 20–21 percent, while Oceania produces the remaining 2 percent.
The total share of the combined three main producers of roundwood commodities in 2021 was roughly 30 percent for wood fuel, 40 percent for non-coniferous industrial roundwood and 50 percent for coniferous industrial roundwood (see FIGURE 34).
Many lower- and middle-income countries rely on wood for energy purposes (notably cooking). The largest producers are all in these income groups and have large populations with a high reliance on wood for energy: in 2021, India ranked first with 300 million m3 (15 percent of total production), followed by China with 156 million m3 and Brazil with 129 million m3 (respectively 8 percent and 7 percent of global production). TABLE 27 shows that five African countries are included in the top 10: Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda.
The main industrial roundwood producers are all countries with a large forest area and a well-established logging industry. In the case of coniferous industrial roundwood, the top producers in 2021 were the United States of America, with a production of 306 million m3 (26 percent of the total production), followed by the Russian Federation with 161 million m3 (14 percent) and Canada with 116 million m3 (10 percent). China led the production of non-coniferous industrial roundwood in 2021, with 152 million m3 (18 percent of the global production), followed by Brazil (115 million m3, or 13 percent) and Indonesia (89 million m3, or 10 percent).
With the economic recovery of 2021, the production of all the main products derived from wood picked up (see FIGURE 35 and TABLE 28) and reached their highest values. After three years of decline, the production of paper and paperboard rebounded and peaked in 2021: 417 million tonnes – an increase of 4.4 percent over the 2020 production. Recovered paper production exhibited the same pattern, with a production of 244 million tonnes in 2021 (+7 percent over the 2020 production). The pandemic contributed to changes in paper demand and production. Many activities such as education and news consumption were curtailed or moved online, reducing the demand for graphic papers; however, the increase in online shopping and shipping contributed to an increase in the demand and production of other paper and paperboard. In total, between 2000 and 2021, paper and paperboard increased by 29 percent and recovered paper by 70 percent. Wood pulp production increased by 2.7 percent to 194 million tonnes in 2021 compared with 2020 (and 13 percent compared with 2000). The production of wood charcoal reached 55 million tonnes in 2021, up 49 percent from the 2000 level. Wood pellets and other agglomerates, for which data collection was started in 2012, show steady growth with a production record of 51 million tonnes in 2021, an increase of 120 percent since the 23 million tonnes produced in 2012. World production of sawnwood recovered strongly from its low point of 2009 and, after two years of decline, increased in 2021 to 496 million m3, up 29 percent compared with 2000. Growth in the production of wood-based panels, which had been steady since 2009 but was interrupted in 2020, resumed; the 402 million m3 produced in 2021 represent a 126 percent increase from the 2000 production.
The monetary value of global food exports multiplied by 4.4 in nominal terms between 2000 and 2021, from USD 380 billion in 2000 to USD 1.66 trillion in 2021, with strong increases in all food commodity groups, especially fats and oils (see FIGURE 36). Fruit and vegetables accounted for 19 percent of the total value of food exports in 2021, followed by cereals and preparations (15 percent). Fish and meat each had a share of 10–11 percent. As seen in TABLE 29, the United States of America was the largest food exporter in 2021 with 9 percent of the total, followed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands (6 percent) and Brazil (5 percent).
In terms of food net trade, defined as the nominal value of exports minus that of imports, two regions stand out: the Americas as the largest net exporter with a USD 136 billion surplus in 2021, and Asia as the largest net importer, posting a USD 258 billion deficit in 2021 (see FIGURE 37). Oceania remained a net exporter of food during the 2000–2021 period and Africa a net importer. Europe was a net importer of food during most of the period but became a net exporter in 2013 and briefly overtook Oceania in 2020. As seen in TABLE 30, the largest net exporting countries in 2021 are Brazil (+USD 76 billion), New Zealand (+USD 40 billion) and Indonesia (+USD 28 billion). Looking at TABLE 29, Brazil derives a large share of its food exports from soybeans (included in the “Other food” category), New Zealand from dairy products and Indonesia from fats and oils. The largest net importing countries are China (−USD 154 billion), Japan (−USD 54 billion) and the United States of America (−USD 32 billion). TABLE 31 shows that meat accounts for the larger share of China’s and Japan’s food imports, while fruit and vegetables are the United States’ main food import.
Trade flows vary considerably between regions and commodity groups (see FIGURE 38). The largest individual flows are observed for fruit and vegetables, with Europe importing USD 144 billion, and for cereals, with Oceania exporting USD 109 billion in 2021. Asia was the top importing region for cereals and preparations, fats and oils, meat and meat preparations, and sugar and honey; for beverages, dairy and eggs, fish and fruit and vegetables, the main importer was Europe. For all commodity groups but two, Europe was the main exporter; Asia led for fats and oils, and the Americas led for sugar and honey. Cereals and preparations is the commodity group with the largest net trade deficit and surplus: Asia’s trade deficit was USD 68 billion, while Europe’s surplus was USD 40 billion. In 2021, Asia was a net importer of all commodity groups but fish, and Africa was a net importer of all commodity groups but fish, and fruit and vegetables. Oceania was a net exporter of all commodity groups in 2021. The Americas and Europe were net exporters of most groups, but each had significant net imports in one category: the Americas had a deficit of USD 20 billion for beverages and Europe had one of USD 36 billion for fruit and vegetables.
Looking at the quantities instead of the values traded gives a vastly different picture. In that case, cereals are by a wide margin the most traded commodity group, with exports reaching a record high of 508 million tonnes in 2021 (see FIGURE 39 and TABLE 32). This is 247 million tonnes, or 95 percent more than in 2000. In 2021, wheat was the most exported cereal (39 percent), marginally ahead of maize (38.6 percent). Together with rice (10 percent), these three crops accounted for 88 percent of all exports in 2021, with the exports of maize growing much faster (+138 percent) than those of rice (+117 percent) and wheat (+69 percent) since 2000.
For each of the main traded cereals, exports tend to originate from a few countries while imports are more dispersed (see FIGURE 40).15 In 2021, the top three exporters accounted for significant shares of the total exports: 67 percent for maize, 63 percent for rice and 39 percent for wheat. In comparison, the top three importers accounted for 16 to 33 percent of the total imports for these commodities. The main producers tend to also feature among the main exporters. China stands out as a major producing country focusing on domestic demand since its exports are fairly small compared to its production (see TABLE 20 and TABLE 32); it is also the largest importer of maize and rice, and the second largest importer of wheat.
After two years of decline in 2019 and 2020, the nominal value of global forest products exports surged in 2021, to a record high of USD 286 billion. This represents an increase of USD 140 billion, or 97 percent, compared with 2000, and an increase of USD 60 billion, or 27 percent, from the low point of 2020 (see FIGURE 41 and TABLE 34). With 35 percent of the total value, paper and paperboard was the most traded commodity in 2021, even though its share has steadily declined from 48 percent in 2000. Sawnwood, wood-based panels and pulp for paper each represented 13 to 19 percent of the value of forestry exports in 2021, with small changes compared to their 2000 shares.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Food Price Index, which measures the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities, consists of the average of five commodity group price indices (cereals, dairy, meat, oils and sugar), weighted with the average export shares of each of the groups for 2014–2016. Since January 2000, it went up 68.8 points to 121.4 points in August 2023 (see FIGURE 42 and TABLE 35). The FAO Food Price Index spiked in 2007/2008 during the food security crisis that saw the price of cereals reach record levels, especially rice and wheat. Food prices soared again in late 2010 and early 2011 (especially sugar and dairy). Overall, the period of sustained high prices lasted much longer than in the previous commodity price booms and busts with the return to the pre-surge price levels only five years later, in January 2016. The FAO Food Price Index declined during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic reflecting uncertainties faced by commodity markets. However, it surged between May 2020 and March 2022 to 159.7 points, its highest value ever, due to a combination of factors including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the supply chains, the rebound in activity and demand experienced in 2021, and the disruption to exports of cereals and vegetable oils from the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The FAO Food Price Index then declined sharply between June 2022 and July 2022 – to a level just close to that of February 2022 – and then more slowly, to 121.1 points in August 2023, which is more than 20 points higher than the average of 2020.
An important factor to note is that the overall trend of the FAO Food Price Index can mask a wide discrepancy of movements across sectors, as shown in FIGURE 43. The market fundamentals of supply and demand, as well as exchange rates dynamics, drive the evolution of international prices. The indices for sugar, vegetable oils and cereals show the largest increases since the beginning of 2020. The indices for oils and sugar also experienced a sharp drop during the first months of 2020 (as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted international food markets) followed by a doubling over the following 16 months. The indices for cereals and oils peaked in the first half of 2022, as the war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine reduced the exports from these key exporters of wheat and sunflower oil. The resumption of Ukrainian exports and better production prospects contributed to the drop in the indices that continued until August 2023 except for sugar, which increased steeply in February 2023 and has plateaued since.
The FAO Fish Price Index measures the monthly changes in international prices of a basket of fisheries and aquaculture commodities. The index consists of the average of five commodity group price indices (whitefish, salmon, tuna, other pelagic fish and shrimps) weighted by the average export shares of each of the groups for the 2014–2016 period. Since January 2000, it went up from 65.5 to 113.6 points in August 2023. However, it did not grow gradually over time but showed several periods of expansion and contraction (see FIGURE 44). Being an average, the index masks wide differences among species and across the aquaculture and capture fisheries sector, in addition to the dynamics of supply and demand and exchange rates. Over the first eight months of 2023, the indices associated with tuna, salmon and pelagic fish experienced increases compared with the same period in 2022, while the indices for shrimps and whitefish were down.
At the country level, changes in domestic prices received by agricultural producers varied between −23 percent (in Timor-Leste) and +41 percent (in Malaysia) in 2022 compared with 2021 (see FIGURE 45 and TABLE 36). The largest fluctuations, either up or down, often took place in Asia and Africa, although large increases were also observed in Europe. Many factors can affect producer prices, including favourable or poor harvests compared to the previous year, production costs, market structure, subsidy schemes and external factors – as is the case, for instance, of economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2018. The characteristics of the food supply chain (including the transformation of goods and the incorporation of services along the chain) play a key role in shaping the transmission of price shocks between producers and consumers. They can explain different rates of change in producer prices compared to consumer prices.
Food consumer prices inflation peaked in all regions in December 2022–January 2023 after more than a year of steep increases; while it started to fall sharply during the first half of 2023, most regions were still facing very high food inflation rates (see FIGURE 46 and TABLE 37). The world average fluctuated around 2.5 percent between January 2017 and July 2021, remaining above 4 percent at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in April and May 2020; it then increased gradually from 3.1 percent in July 2021 to 13.5 percent in December 2022 due to higher demand (as the global economy bounced back from the pandemic) combined with persisting supply chain disruptions exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. Some of these tensions have eased and demand has slowed down as central banks around the world raised their interest rates, leading the world average to fall to 9.3 percent in July 2023 – the same level as in April 2022. The food inflation rate in Europe experienced the largest increase among all regions, from nearly 0 in mid-2021 to 19.7 percent in December 2022; it then fell to 13 percent in July 2023. The trajectories observed in Oceania, the Americas and Africa are fairly similar as food inflation in these regions accelerated in 2022 to reach record-high levels of around 13–15 percent by January 2023 followed by a sharp drop during the first half of 2023 (with the strongest decrease happening in Africa). The trend in Asia is different, as food inflation rose to 8.3 percent in June 2022, fell during the following two months and then reached 9 percent in January 2023 before steadily decreasing to 2.4 percent in June 2023.
After a decades-long decline and five years of relative stability since 2014, the global level of the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU), which had increased sharply in 2020 and more slowly in 2021, remained relatively unchanged from 2021 to 2022 (see FIGURE 47 and TABLE 38). Hunger affected 9.2 percent of the world population in 2022, which is far above the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level of 7.9 percent estimated for 2019. The PoU is the highest in Africa and kept increasing in 2022 to 19.7 percent, although at a slower pace than in 2020 and 2021. The PoU declined in 2022 in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, to 8.5 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, following steep increases since 2019. This indicates a possible turnaround in the trend of hunger in both regions, although the PoU in Asia remained the second highest among all regions. The PoU in Oceania, which had remained stable between 2016 and 2019, increased to 7.0 percent in 2022.
Between 691 and 783 million people in the world faced hunger in 2022. Considering the middle point of the projected range (almost 735 million), this is equivalent to 122 million more people facing hunger in 2022 than in 2019 (see FIGURE 48). While its PoU is the second highest, Asia is home to 55 percent of the world’s undernourished people due to its large population base, and the two countries with the largest number of undernourished people are in Asia (see TABLE 39). Even though the number of people facing hunger in Asia declined by 3 percent, or 12 million, between 2021 and 2022, it still went up 58 million between 2019 and 2022 to 402 million. In Africa, 282 million people were undernourished in 2022 (38 percent of the global total), an increase of 11 million people from 2021, 57 million from 2019 and 98 million from 2000. By contrast, the undernourished population in Latin America and the Caribbean decreased by 2.4 million from 2021 to 43.2 million in 2022, which is 7.2 million higher than the 2019 value but 13.2 million lower than the 2000 level. The number of people facing hunger in Oceania increased by 48 percent, or 1 million people, between 2000 and 2022, of which 0.2 million were added between 2021 and 2022.
In 2022, 11.3 percent of the world population (900 million people) were exposed to severe food insecurity based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) (see FIGURE 49). The levels and trends since 2015 are broadly consistent with those of the PoU, confirming that these two indicators complement each other as they both measure the extent of severe food deprivation. As one of the official Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity provides additional information on people who do not have regular access to nutritious and sufficient food, even if they are not necessarily suffering from hunger. In 2022, it is estimated that 18.3 percent of the world population, just over 1.4 billion people, have experienced food insecurity at moderate levels. This brings the total estimates for moderate or severe food insecurity in 2022 to 29.6 percent of the world population, or 2.4 billion people.
Similar to the PoU, moderate or severe food insecurity experienced a steep increase between 2019 and 2020 (equal to that of the previous five years combined) and remained unchanged for two years in a row.16 As seen in TABLE 40, moderate or severe food insecurity is much higher in Africa than in any other part of the world, affecting 60.9 percent of the population in 2022. This is followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (37.5 percent), Asia (24.2 percent), Oceania (13 percent) and Northern America and Europe (8 percent).
FIES data collected by FAO since 2014 in more than 140 countries at the individual (rather than household) level provide a unique opportunity to produce gender-disaggregated estimates for the prevalence of food insecurity in the adult population. In Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern America and Europe, and the world as a whole, the prevalence of severe food insecurity and of moderate or severe food insecurity is slightly higher in adult women than in adult men – the differences being statistically significant. The largest differences are found in Latin America and the Caribbean (2.6 percentage points for severe food insecurity, and 9.1 percentage points for moderate or severe food insecurity).
As the FIES data collected in 2022 were georeferenced, the prevalence of food insecurity in the adult population can also be disaggregated between rural, peri-urban and urban areas. At the global level, food security improves as the degree of urbanization increases: moderate or severe food insecurity affected 33.3 percent of adults living in rural areas in 2022 compared with 28.8 percent in peri-urban areas and 26.0 percent in urban areas.17
FAO, with support from the World Bank Data Group, monitors and now publishes on the FAOSTAT platform estimates of the cost and affordability of a healthy diet. These indicators provide evidence regarding people’s economic access to the lowest-cost healthy diet, using locally available foods to meet nutritional requirements.
The global estimate of the cost of a healthy diet in 2021 was 3.66 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day, up 4.3 percent compared with 2020. Regions exhibit significant variations, as the average cost was 4.08 PPP dollars in Latin America and the Caribbean, followed by Asia (3.90 PPP dollars), Africa (3.57 PPP dollars), Northern America and Europe (3.22 PPP dollars) and Oceania (3.20 PPP dollars). The cost of a healthy diet increased by more than 5 percent in all regions except Northern America and Europe between 2020 and 2021, reflecting the rise in food inflation mentioned in FIGURE 46.
To estimate affordability, the cost of a healthy diet is compared with country income distributions after accounting for non-food needs. FAO latest estimates show that more than 3.1 billion people in the world, or 42 percent, were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021.
The world average dietary energy supply (DES), measured as calories per capita per day, has been increasing steadily to 2 978 kcal per person per day in 2021, up 9 percent compared with 2010 (see FIGURE 51). It is the highest in Europe and the Americas at 3 458 kcal per person per day and 3 385 kcal per person per day, respectively. Oceania had the third largest DES in 2021 (3 086 kcal per person per day) and is the only region showing a decline (of 2 percent) since 2010. The fastest increase took place in Asia where the DES went up 8 percent since 2010, to 2 931 kcal per person per day. The DES in Africa is the lowest among all regions throughout the period and remained mostly flat. The discrepancies between countries and within regions can be significant: the United States of America had the highest DES in 2021 (3 911 kcal per person per day), more than twice that of Burundi, which had the lowest DES in the world (1 775 kcal per person per day), and 88 percent more than that of Haiti, which had the lowest DES in the Americas (2 076 kcal per person per day).
Given the importance of cereals as staple foods worldwide (see FIGURE 53) and the discrepancy between consumption and production in many countries, a measure of food security is the cereal imports dependency ratio, defined as the net trade of cereals (imports minus exports) divided by the total cereals supply in a country (the country’s own production plus the imports minus the exports). Among the most cereals import-dependent countries in the period from 2018 to 2020, the majority are small island developing states18 and countries in the Near East, where the natural conditions are not favourable to cereals production (see FIGURE 52 and TABLE 43).
The composition of the dietary energy supply, detailed in food balance sheets,19 varies greatly between the regions, with some evolutions between 2010 and 2021 (see FIGURE 53 and TABLE 44). Cereals were the most important contributor to the dietary energy supply in all regions, with shares in 2021 ranging from 22 percent in Oceania to 49 percent in Asia. Fats and oils is the second major food group in all the regions but Africa. Regional specificities include the high share of roots, tubers and pulses in Africa, of sugar in the Americas, and of fats and oils in Oceania, the Americas and Europe. Between 2010 and 2021, the most visible changes in the composition of the food supply took place in Asia (where the share of cereals dropped by 3 percentage points while that of fats and oils, fruit and vegetables, and dairy and eggs increased significantly).
The average protein supply increased in all regions between 2000 and 2020 (see FIGURE 54 and TABLE 45). The growth in Oceania (22 percent), Asia (20 percent) and Africa (19 percent) was much faster than the world average of 14 percent. The share of protein from animal origin went up across all regions except Oceania (as a consequence of the increased share of meat, fish, and dairy and eggs in diets observed in FIGURE 53): it is highest in Oceania (62 percent) and lowest in Africa (21 percent). Strong disparities also prevail between regions in terms of levels and composition. Protein supply was highest in Northern America and Europe in 2018–2020, with 108 g per person per day compared with 64 g per person per day for Africa – the primary reason for this is the difference in the availability of protein from animal-sourced foods. In 2018–2020, plants were the main source of protein in Africa (79 percent) and Asia (65 percent) but accounted for 48 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, 40 percent in Northern America and Europe and 38 percent in Oceania.
The average dietary supply adequacy has been increasing steadily since the early 2000s in every region, with Northern America and Europe being the highest and Africa being the lowest (see FIGURE 55). In recent years, the average dietary supply adequacy in Africa remained unchanged or decreased in line with the trend of the dietary energy supply in the region (see FIGURE 51).
Dietary supply adequacy divides a country’s average supply of calories for food consumption by the average dietary energy requirement estimated for its population, to measure the adequacy of food supply in terms of calories. Analysed together with the prevalence of undernourishment, it helps identify the cause of undernourishment as mainly due to insufficient food supply or to particularly bad distribution.
The prevalence of stunting among children under five years of age (as well as the number of stunted children) decreased worldwide from 33 percent in 2000 to 22 percent in 2022 (see FIGURE 56). The decrease took place in all regions, with the largest drop in Asia, from 37 percent in 2000 to 22 percent in 2022. However, this global progress may have disguised a starker situation in some parts of the world. As seen in TABLE 47, the prevalence of child stunting was greater than 30 percent in 28 countries in 2022 (with a majority in sub-Saharan Africa), which is “very high” according to the World Health Organization, and was above 50 percent in four countries.
Obesity among adults of 18 years and above increased rapidly in every region of the world between 2000 and 2016 (see TABLE 47). In 2016, 13.1 percent of the adult population in the world was obese, an increase from 8.7 percent in 2000. Oceania and Northern America and Europe had the highest prevalence of adult obesity (both at around 27–28 percent), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean. The prevalence of adult obesity in Africa and Asia was lower than the world average, although it has been steadily increasing. Overall, the world is not on track to meet the 2025 target of the World Health Assembly to halt the rise in obesity.
The 20 countries with the highest prevalence of obesity among adults in 2016 were clustered in the Pacific Islands, the Near East and North Africa (see FIGURE 58). In all of them, 30 percent or more of the population is obese, with the highest proportion in Nauru at 61 percent. For many of these countries, multiple forms of malnutrition coexist: in Egypt, for example, the prevalence of child stunting was 20.4 percent in 2022 (see TABLE 47), while the prevalence of adult obesity was 32 percent in 2016 (see TABLE 48).
FIGURE 59 shows that the global shares of the three different types of land (agricultural, forest and other) in total land area remained relatively stable from 2000 to 2021 with slight reductions in agricultural land and forest land shares that translated into declines of 86 million ha for agricultural land and 104 million ha for forest land. Within regions, Europe has the largest share of forest land (46 percent), closely followed by the Americas (41 percent), while the other regions are all around 20–22 percent. More than half of all land (54 percent) in Asia is agricultural land, compared with 46 percent in Oceania, 39 percent in Africa, 29 percent in the Americas and 21 percent in Europe. The conversion of land from one use to another also varied between the regions. Oceania had agricultural land converted to other land. Both Africa and the Americas converted forest land to agricultural land and/or other land. Europe, Asia and Oceania had forest land expansion coupled with agricultural land reduction from 2000 to 2021 (see TABLE 49).
Countries with the highest share of forest area in land area are located in all regions of the world, mostly the tropical ones; they also tend to be low- and middle-income countries (see FIGURE 60). In 2021, forest covered 97 percent of the land area in Suriname, 94 percent in Guyana and 92 percent in the Federated States of Micronesia. The biggest increases in the share of forest area between 2000 and 2021 took place in Viet Nam (+9 percentage points), Cuba (+9 percentage points) and Fiji (+8 percentage points), while the largest decreases in the share of forest area over the same period happened in Paraguay (−18 percentage points), Nicaragua (−17 percentage points) and Cambodia (−16 percentage points), as featured in TABLE 50.
In absolute terms, the top country for afforestation was China, with an additional 45 million ha of forest between 2000 and 2021; deforestation was the strongest in Brazil as 56 million ha of forest were lost there between 2000 and 2021 (see TABLE 49).
The global harvested area of primary crops went up 24 percent between 2000 and 2021 to 1.5 billion ha (see FIGURE 61). Cereals accounted for more than half the world’s harvested area during the period, even though their share declined to 50 percent in 2021 (see TABLE 51). Oil crops covered 23 percent of the global harvested area and experienced the fastest growth in both absolute (+114 million ha) and relative terms (+51 percent). The other main crop groups each account for less than 5 percent of the global harvested area. The overall harvested area went up 3 percent between 2019 and 2021 after a period of marginal decline between 2017 and 2019.
One visible aspect of the efforts to make the agriculture sector more sustainable is the rise of organic agriculture, the main feature of which is its avoidance of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.20 In 2021, the agriculture area under certified organic status or in conversion to organic was 77 million ha. Australia accounted for 46 percent of the total, followed by Argentina (5 percent) and Spain (4 percent). The eight countries with the largest organic agriculture area made up 73 percent of the global area under certified organic agriculture (see FIGURE 62 and TABLE 52).
Normalizing the agriculture area under certified organic or in conversion to organic by the agricultural land area allows for comparison of the importance that countries give to this aspect of sustainable agriculture. Looking at countries with a sizeable agricultural area in FIGURE 63, the countries with the highest share of area under organic agriculture in total agricultural area for 2021 are Austria (26 percent), Sweden (20 percent) and Uruguay (19 percent). Fifteen of the top 20 countries are in Europe, highlighting that the region has emphasized the importance of organic agriculture. In other regions, the balance between conventional versus organic farming is still tilted towards the conventional (see TABLE 53).
National censuses of agriculture, conducted within the framework of FAO’s World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (WCA) at least once every decade, allow countries to collect data on agricultural holdings (often called farms) and shed light on the structure of the sector at a very detailed level, including the size of the holdings, their type of tenure, the sex of the holder or the holder’s legal status (civil person or juridical person). These data have been available on the FAOSTAT platform since 2022 with information sometimes going back to the 1930 round and enable users to easily compare information from different rounds.
FIGURE B4 shows that Australia has by far the largest average holdings’ area since the 1990 census round (between 3 000 ha and 4 500 ha), while all the other countries except South Africa (1 157 ha in the 2020 The average holdings’ area declined in Australia between the 1990 and 2010 rounds and in the United States of America between the 1990 and 2020 rounds. Increases in Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, New Zealand, Czechia and Slovakia suggest a potential consolidation of holdings in these countries.
Water stress, defined as the share of freshwater withdrawal in available freshwater resources, after taking into account environmental water requirements, affects predominantly Western and Central Asia as well as Northern Africa (see FIGURE 64 and TABLE 54). The countries experiencing the most acute water stress levels in 2020 (Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia) are all located in the Arabian peninsula and are withdrawing each year 9 to almost 40 times their renewable freshwater resources available. As a result, non-renewable water resources are used and are diminishing rapidly. The national water stress level can hide some differences within a country. Water stress disaggregation by river basins shows that the basins affected by severe water stress are located not only in Northern Africa and the Near East but also in Northern America, Central and Southern Asia and on the west coast of Latin America.21
The cropland nutrient budget represents the difference between the quantities of synthetic and organic nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) added and withdrawn from the cropland by the production of crops and livestock. An excess of nutrients can lead to environmental risks (for example via additional outputs, such as volatilization, leaching and runoff), while insufficient levels of nutrients constrain yields. FIGURE 65 and TABLE 55 show that the global average cropland nitrogen budget went up 14 percent to 54 kg/ha between 2000 and 2020, although it was on a declining trend during the 2010s. With 93 kg/ha in 2020, Asia had the highest cropland nitrogen budget, far ahead of the Americas (40 kg/ha), Europe (38 kg/ha), Oceania (22 kg/ha) and Africa (12 kg/ha). Oceania had the largest growth of the cropland nitrogen budget between 2000 and 2020 (+555 percent), driven by increased fertilizer inputs and decreased outputs, while Europe is the only region where the cropland nitrogen budget declined (by 5 percent). Asia had the largest total nitrogen inputs in 2020 (166 kg/ha); the Americas had the largest inputs from biological fixation, as well as outputs from crop removal, while Africa had the smallest total nitrogen inputs (39 kg/ha).
Agrifood systems are both affected by climate change and important contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Total emissions from agrifood systems in 2021 amounted to 16.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Gt CO2eq) of GHG released into the atmosphere, an increase of 10 percent, or 1.5 Gt CO2eq compared with 2000 (FIGURE 66 and TABLE 56). This growth is due to an increase in emissions from pre- and post-production and farm-gate emissions that was larger than the decrease in land-use change emissions. Activities within the farm gate accounted for 7.8 Gt CO2eq, or 48 percent of the total emissions in 2021, followed by pre- and post-production (5.3 Gt CO2eq, or 33 percent) and land-use change (3.1 Gt CO2eq, or 19 percent). Asia was the top emitter, with 6.8 Gt CO2eq (42 percent of the total) in 2020, followed by the Americas (4.3 Gt CO2eq, or 26 percent), Africa (2.9 Gt CO2eq, or 18 percent), Europe (2.0 Gt CO2eq, or 12 percent) and Oceania (0.3 Gt CO2eq, or 2 percent). CO2 represented half of the total emissions, or 8.2 Gt CO2eq. Next were methane (CH4) with 5.3 Gt CO2eq (32 percent), nitrous oxide (N2O) with 2.3 Gt CO2eq (14 percent) and fluorinated gases (F-gases) with 0.5 Gt CO2eq (3 percent).
World agriculture emissions within the farm gate (those related to the production of crops and livestock) grew by 14 percent between 2000 and 2021, to 7.8 Gt CO2eq (see FIGURE 67 and TABLE 57). Around 53 percent derive from livestock-related activities, and with 2.9 Gt CO2eq, the emissions from enteric fermentation generated in the digestive system of ruminant livestock were alone responsible for 37 percent of agricultural emissions. Animal and synthetic sources of soil fertilization contributed to slightly less than one-fifth of agricultural emissions. On-farm energy use and drained organic soils each were responsible for a constant 12–13 percent share of farm-gate emissions over the 2000–2021 period, while methane released from the cultivation of rice paddies accounted for 9 to 10 percent.
Calculating emissions intensitiese allows for comparison of the GHG performance of a range of commodities, as they represent a simplified indication of the efficiency of production for each commodity, by country and over time. As seen in FIGURE 68, the most CO2-intensive commodities on average in 2021 were cattle meat (28 kg CO2eq/kg) and sheep meat (24 kg CO2eq/kg). The intensity of pig and chicken meat was much lower (1.7 kg CO2eq/kg and 0.5 kg CO2eq/kg respectively). The global emissions intensity for cow milk was 1 kg CO2eq/kg, compared to 5.9 CO2eq/kg for sheep milk. The emissions intensity of rice was 1 kg CO2eq/kg, nearly six times larger than for cereals excluding rice (0.2 kg CO2eq/kg). As seen in TABLE 58, the intensities change significantly across regions, reflecting large differences in associated efficiencies of production. For instance, the emissions intensity of cattle meat is more than twice the world average in Africa (57 kg CO2eq/kg) and nearly half in Europe (17 kg CO2eq/kg).
Worldwide, winters and summers alike are becoming increasingly hotter than the 1951–1980 average (see FIGURE 69). With 1.39 °C more than the world reference measured over land, 2022 was the seventh warmest year at the global level, with 2020 (1.71 °C), 2016 (1.66 °C) and 2021 (1.44 °C) the three warmest ones. The eight warmest years on record since 1961 (and in fact since the beginning of observations in 1880) are all within the eight-year period of 2015–2022. Europe is the region where the temperature change has been the highest in 2022 (and also for most of the 2000–2022 period), with 2.23 °C, followed by Asia (1.75 °C), the Americas (1.05 °C), Africa (1.01 °C) and Oceania (0.8 °C). The average temperature change in the 2010s was 1.25 °C, compared to 0.96 °C in the 2000s. As seen in TABLE 59, 128 countries had a mean annual temperature change at least 1.0 °C higher than the 1951–1980 average in 2022; the largest mean annual temperature change was recorded in Andorra (3.24 °C), France and Luxembourg (2.93 °C).
Statistics are at the core of the work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), its mandate and strategic goals. Article I of its constitution states that “The Organization shall collect, analyse, interpret and disseminate information relating to nutrition, food and agriculture. […] the term ‘agriculture’ and its derivatives includes forestry, fisheries and aquaculture.”
FAO has a decentralized statistical system, with several technical units carrying out statistical activities. The Statistics Division (ESS) produces a vast array of data on agriculture (covering the socioeconomic, environmental, production, trade, food security and nutrition aspects), which form the majority of FAO statistics – other technical divisions are in charge of data on fisheries and aquaculture, forestry, international commodity prices and water. ESS develops and advocates for the implementation of methodologies and standards for data collection, validation, processing and analysis of food and agriculture statistics. In these statistical domains, it also plays a vital role in the compilation, processing and dissemination of internationally comparable data, and provides essential capacity-building support to member countries. In addition, ESS disseminates documents, working papers and statistical publications that cover agricultural and food security statistics (including prices, production, trade and agri-environmental statistical data). ESS is involved in managing a number of large-scale projects aimed at improving statistical methodologies and establishing best practices for collecting, collating, processing, and for disseminating and using data relevant to food security, agriculture and rural areas.
The Office of Chief Statistician (OCS) is responsible for the overall coordination and governance of FAO’s statistical work, both at headquarters and in FAO’s Regional and Country Offices. OCS provides guidance to the technical units in charge of data acquisition, compilation and dissemination, with the aim of ensuring quality and consistency of statistical practices at the corporate level. It plays a quality assurance role in developing methods and standards for food and agriculture statistics and in providing technical assistance and capacity development to member countries. OCS also leads the Organization’s work to monitor the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators under FAO custodianship.
The prevalence of obesity in the adult population is the percentage of adults age 18 and over whose body mass index (BMI) is more than 30 kg/m². The BMI is a simple index of weight-for-height, or the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in metres.
Originator: WHO
Owner: World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory Data Repository/World Health Statistics
Land used for cultivation of crops and animal husbandry. It is the total of areas under “Cropland” and “Permanent meadows and pastures”.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Annual quantity of self-supplied water withdrawn for irrigation, livestock and aquaculture purposes, including water specifically withdrawn by water supply companies to operate irrigation systems. It can include water from freshwater resources, as well as water from over-abstraction of renewable groundwater or withdrawal from fossil groundwater, direct use of agricultural drainage water, direct use of (treated) wastewater and desalinated water. Water for the dairy and meat industries and industrial processing of harvested agricultural products is included under industrial water withdrawal.
Originator: FAO, Land and Water Division (AQUASTAT)
Owner: FAO
Sum of areas under “Agriculture area certified organic” and “Agriculture area in conversion to organic”. Agriculture area certified organic is the land area exclusively dedicated to organic agriculture and managed by applying organic agriculture methods. It refers to the land area fully converted to organic agriculture. It is the portion of land area (including arable lands, pastures or wild areas) managed (cultivated) or wild harvested in accordance with specific organic standards or technical regulations, which has been inspected and approved by a certification body. Agriculture area in conversion to organic is the land area that is going through the organic conversion process, usually a two-year period of conversion to organic land.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (AFF) refers to the broad agricultural sector including crop growing and animal production, forestry and logging, and fishing and aquaculture. These sub-sectors correspond to Section A of the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC), revision 4 and are covered in its Divisions 1, 2 and 3. To distinguish the agricultural sector (crop and livestock in Division 1 of ISIC), the broad agricultural sector is abbreviated as AFF.
Originator: United Nations Statistics Division
Owner: UN
This is the total value added in AFF. The value added is the net output of a sector after adding up the value of all outputs and subtracting intermediate inputs. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or depletion and degradation of natural resources. ISIC, revision 3 or 4, determines the origin of value added. Agriculture here refers to the broad agricultural sector (AFF).
Originator: World Bank
Owner: World Bank
Animal oils and fats include animal fats that are obtained by dressing the carcasses of slaughtered animals (slaughter fats), or at a later stage in the butchering process when meat is being prepared for final consumption (butcher fats).
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Aquaculture fish production is defined as the farming of aquatic organisms. Farming implies some form of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding, protection from predators, etc. Farming also implies individual or corporate ownership of the stock being cultivated. For statistical purposes, aquatic organisms, which are harvested by an individual or corporate body that has owned them throughout their rearing period, contribute to aquaculture, while aquatic organisms, which are exploitable by the public as a common property resource, with or without appropriate licences, are the harvest of fisheries. In the case of capture-based aquaculture, only the incremental growth (or weight gain) in captivity, could and should be reported as the production from aquaculture. Data included here cover aquaculture production of fish, molluscs, crustaceans and miscellaneous aquatic animals but exclude the production of marine mammals, crocodiles, corals, pearls, sponges and algae. Fish production is the sum of aquaculture and capture fish production. Data are expressed in live weight equivalent.
Originator: FAO, Fisheries and Aquaculture Division
Owner: FAO
Arable land is the total of areas under temporary crops, temporary meadows and pastures, and land with temporary fallow. Arable land does not include land that is potentially cultivable but is not normally cultivated.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Area harvested refers to the area from which a crop is gathered. It excludes, therefore, the area from which, although sown or planted, there was no harvest due to damage, failure, etc. It is usually net of temporary crops and sometimes gross of permanent crops. The net area differs from the gross area insofar as the latter includes uncultivated patches, footpaths, ditches, headlands, shoulders, shelterbelts, etc. If the crop under consideration is harvested more than once during the year as a consequence of successive cropping (i.e. the same crop is sown or planted more than once in the same field during the year), the area is counted as many times as harvested.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Hunting, collecting and gathering activities directed at removing or collecting live wild aquatic organisms are capture fish production. The capture production statistics here indicates the nominal catches of aquatic organisms, killed, caught, trapped or collected for all commercial, industrial, recreational and subsistence purposes or other utilizations in live weight equivalent. Data included here cover capture production of fish, molluscs, crustaceans and miscellaneous aquatic animals but exclude production of marine mammals, crocodiles, corals, pearls, sponges and algae. Fish production is the sum of aquaculture and capture fish production.
Originator: FAO, Fisheries and Aquaculture Division
Owner: FAO
The cereal import dependency ratio provides a measure of the dependence of a country or region from cereal imports. The higher the value of the indicator, the higher the dependence. Specifically, the cereal imports dependency ratio tells how much of the available domestic food supply of cereals has been imported and how much comes from the country’s own production. It is computed as (cereal imports - cereal exports) /(cereal production + cereal imports - cereal exports) × 100. Given this formula the indicator assumes only values less than or equal to 100. Negative values indicate that the country is a net exporter of cereals. The indicator is calculated in three-year averages, to reduce the impact of possible errors in estimated production and trade, due to the difficulties in properly accounting for stock variations in major foods.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Wheat, rice paddy, barley, maize, popcorn, rye, oats, millets, sorghum, buckwheat, quinoa, fonio, triticale, canary seed, mixed grain and cereals nes are all considered cereals.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Cereals, flours and cereal grains that are either rolled, flaked, pearled, sliced or kibbled are cereals and preparations.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
The food consumer price index (CPI) measures the price change between the current and reference periods of the average basket of food items purchased by households. The food CPI is rescaled to a unique base year of 2010 by FAO for all countries with sufficient time coverage. FAO uses the geometric mean of the monthly indices of the year 2010 as the rescaling factor.
Originator: IMF, UNSD, OECD and national statistics websites
Owner: IMF, UNSD and FAO
Cropland is the land used for cultivation of crops. The total of areas under “Arable land” and “Permanent crops”.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Difference between the cropland nitrogen input and output flows. Inputs are comprised of synthetic fertilizers, manure applied to soils, atmospheric deposition and biological fixation; outputs are comprised of crop removal from harvest.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Crop statistics include permanent and temporary crops and cover the following categories: Crops primary, Fibre crops primary, Cereals, Coarse grain, Citrus fruit, Fruit, Oil crops (oil and cake equivalent), Pulses, Roots and tubers, Treenuts and Vegetables.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Butter, buttermilk, cheese, cream, ghee, milk, whey and yoghurt are all dairy products.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
The food available for human consumption, expressed in kilocalories per person per day is the dietary energy supply. At the country level, it is calculated as the food remaining for human use after taking out all non-food utilization, including exports, industrial use, animal feed, seed, wastage and changes in stocks.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
The dietary energy supply adequacy average expresses the dietary energy supply (DES) as a percentage of the average dietary energy requirement (ADER). Each country’s or region’s average supply of calories for food consumption is normalized by the average dietary energy requirement estimated for its population to provide an index of adequacy of the food supply in terms of calories.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
The figures for the dietary energy supply average are based on the latest available data from national food balance sheets and represent the amount of food available for human consumption.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Egg production by type of poultry should refer to the total production of eggs in the shell by all types of hens in both the traditional sector (individually owned small flocks) and the modern sector (large-scale, intensive commercial poultry farms). Total production includes eggs for hatching but excludes farm waste.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agrifood systems are generated within the farm gate by crop and livestock production activities; from land-use change dynamics, linked for instance to deforestation and peatland degradation to make room for agriculture; and in pre- and post-production processes, such as food manufacturing, household consumption and disposal of food waste. Emissions, relevant to each process, consist of nitrous oxide (N2O); methane (CH4); carbon dioxide (CO2); and fluorinated gases (F-gases).
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Emissions from land management and transformation processes. FAOSTAT data include processes on agricultural land and forest land – corresponding to IPCC land-use categories “cropland”, “forest land” and “grassland”. Emissions from forests consist of CO2 emissions/removals from net carbon stock changes in above- and below-ground biomass related to net forest conversion (deforestation). While CO2 emissions from fires are implicitly included in the carbon stock change computations, non-CO2 emissions from forest fires are reported separately, for “fires in humid tropical forests” and “other forest fires”. In addition to CO2 from deforestation, emissions on agricultural land include CO2 and N2O emissions from the drainage of organic soils. Land-use change emissions in FAOSTAT also include CO2 and CH4 emissions from fires in organic soils.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Pre- and post-production emissions cover activities outside the farm gate, either as input into agricultural production activities (fertilizer manufacturing and pesticide manufacturing) or as post-farm gate processes (food processing, food packaging, food transport, food retail, food household consumption, agrifood systems waste disposal). Emissions include CO2 from fossil-fuels based energy used across the above processes, CH4 and N2O from the treatment of waste streams, and F-gases from cold chains linked to refrigeration of food items.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Greenhouse gas emissions within the farm gate per unit weight of product, expressed in kg CO2eq/kg of product. The indicator is computed for six types of meat (buffalo, cattle [beef], chicken, goat, pig and sheep), four types of milk (camel, cow, goat and sheep), hen eggs, rice, and other cereals (combining the intensities of barley, maize, millet, oats, rye, sorghum and wheat).
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Shares in total emissions of agrifood systems and their components (farm gate, land-use change, pre- and post-production) and of all the sectors covered in the database, computed with respect to emissions in CO2 equivalent and by single gas (CO2, CH4, N2O and F-gases).
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Farm-gate emissions cover all agricultural processes within farms related to crop and livestock production (enteric fermentation, manure management, rice cultivation, synthetic fertilizers, manure applied to soils, manure left on pastures, crop residues, drained organic soils, burning of crop residues, savanna fires), including energy use and drained organic soils within the farm. Non-CO2 gases, namely CH4 and N2O, are produced by crop and livestock production and management activities whereas CO2 emissions are produced from the drainage of organic soils and on-farm use of fossil-fuel based energy (including electricity and heat generated off farms). Emissions are computed following Tier 1 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 Guidelines for National GHG Inventories.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Employment comprises all persons of working age who, during a specified brief period, such as one week or one day, were in the following categories: a) paid employment (whether at work or having a job but not at work); or b) self-employment (whether at work or with an enterprise but not at work). The working-age population is the population above the legal working age, but for statistical purposes it comprises all persons above a specified minimum age threshold for which an inquiry on economic activity is made. To promote international comparability, the working-age population is often defined as all persons aged 15 and older, but this may vary from country to country based on national laws and practices (some countries also use an upper age limit). The classification by economic activity refers to the main activity of the establishment in which a person worked during the reference period. The branch of economic activity of a person does not depend on the specific duties or functions of the person’s job, but rather on the characteristics of the economic unit in which the person worked. Data presented by a branch of economic activity are based on ISIC.
Originator: ILO
Owner: ILO
Export values are reported as FOB (free on board: the value of the goods plus the value of the services performed to deliver the goods to the border of the exporting country).
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
The use of fertilizers refers to agricultural use of inorganic (mineral or chemical) fertilizers for the three main plant nutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (expressed as P2O5) and potassium (expressed as K2O). It includes both straight fertilizers (those containing only one of the three primary plant nutrients) and compound fertilizers (those containing more than one of the three primary plant nutrients; they may be NP, NK, PK or NPK). Agricultural use refers to the use for crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, excluding use for animal feed.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Fish net trade is exports plus re-exports minus imports.
Originator: FAO, Fisheries and Aquaculture Division
Owner: FAO
The FAO Fish Price Index measures the monthly changes in international prices of a basket of fisheries and aquaculture commodities. The index consists of the average of five commodity group price indices (whitefish, salmon, tuna, other pelagic fish and shrimps) weighted by the average export shares of each of the groups for the 2014–2016 period.
Originator: FAO, Fisheries and Aquaculture Division
Owner: FAO
Food is comprised of the commodities in the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) sections 0 (food and live animals), 1 (beverages and tobacco), and 4 (animal and vegetable oils and fats) and SITC division 22 (oil seeds, oil nuts and oil kernels).
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
The FAO Food Price Index is a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities. It consists of the average of five commodity group price indices (meat, dairy, cereals, vegetable oils and sugar), weighted with the average export shares of each of the groups for 2014–16.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Land spanning more than 0.5 ha with trees higher than 5 metres and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. Excludes land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use. Explanatory notes:
• Forest land is determined both by the presence of trees and by the absence of other predominant land uses. The trees should be able to reach a minimum height of 5 metres in situ.
• Includes areas with young trees that have not yet reached but that are expected to reach a canopy cover of 10 percent and tree height of 5 metres. It also includes areas that are temporarily unstocked owing to clear-cutting as part of a forest management practice or natural disasters, and that are expected to be regenerated within five years. Local conditions may, in exceptional cases, justify the use of a longer time frame.
• Includes forest roads, firebreaks and other small open areas.
• May include forest land in national parks, nature reserves and other protected areas, such as those of specific environmental, scientific, historical, cultural or spiritual interest.
• Includes windbreaks, shelter belts and corridors of trees with an area of more than 0.5 ha and width of more than 20 metres.
• Includes abandoned shifting cultivation land with a regeneration of trees that have, or are expected to reach, a canopy cover of 10 percent and tree height of 5 metres.
• Includes areas with mangroves in tidal zones, regardless of whether this area is classified as land area or not.
• Includes areas with bamboo and palms provided that land use, height and canopy cover criteria are met.
• Some agroforestry systems such as the taungya system, where crops are grown only during the first years of the forest rotation, should be classified as forest.
• Excludes tree stands in agricultural production systems, such as fruit-tree plantations (permanent crops), oil palm plantations, rubber and Christmas trees (permanent crops) and agroforestry systems when crops are grown under tree cover.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Products of domestic origin or manufacture shipped out of the country are forest product exports. They include exports from free economic zones and re-exports and exclude “in-transit” shipments. They are reported in cubic metres of solid volume or metric tonnes and values are normally recorded as FOB.
Originator: FAO, Forestry Division
Owner: FAO
Products imported for domestic consumption or processing shipped into a country are forest product imports. They include imports into free economic zones or for re-export and exclude “in-transit” shipments. They are reported in cubic metres of solid volume or metric tonnes and values normally include cost, insurance and freight (CIF).
Originator: FAO, Forestry Division
Owner: FAO
Forest product production includes the production of products that may immediately be consumed in the production of another product (e.g. wood pulp, which may immediately be converted into paper as part of a continuous process). This includes production from all sources within the country including public, private and informal sources. It excludes the production of veneer sheets that are used for plywood production within the same country. It is reported in cubic metres of solid volume in the case of roundwood, sawnwood and wood-based panels and metric tonnes in the case of charcoal, pulp and paper products.
Originator: FAO, Forestry Division
Owner: FAO
Vegetables, as classified in this group, are mainly annual plants cultivated as field and garden crops in the open and under glass and are used almost exclusively for food. Vegetables grown principally for animal feed or seed should be excluded. Certain plants, normally classified as cereals and pulses, belong to this group when harvested green, such as green maize, green peas, etc. Chilies and green peppers are included in this grouping when they are harvested for consumption as vegetables and not processed into spices. Trade data for fresh vegetables also include chilled vegetables, meaning the temperature of the products has been reduced to around 0 ˚C without the products being frozen. Fruit crops consist of fruits and berries that, with few exceptions, are characterized by their sweet taste. Nearly all are permanent crops, mainly from trees, bushes and shrubs, as well as vines and palms. Fruit crops are consumed directly as food and are processed into dried fruit, fruit juice, canned fruit, frozen fruit, jam, alcoholic beverages, etc.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
The government expenditure on agriculture refers to core areas of government functions relevant to agriculture, forestry and fishing (AFF) based on the Classification of Functions of Government as outlined in the Government Finance Statistics Manual of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (2014). Statistics on expenditure in AFF are used to compile the agriculture orientation index.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO and IMF
The gross fixed capital formation is the total value of a producer’s acquisitions, less disposals, of fixed assets during the accounting period plus certain additions to the value of non-produced assets (such as subsoil assets or major improvements in the quantity, quality or productivity of land) realized by the productive activity of institutional units.
Originator: UNSD, OECD and national statistics’ websites
Owner: UNSD, OECD and FAO
Import values are reported as CIF (cost insurance and freight: the value of the goods, plus the value of the services performed to deliver goods to the border of the exporting country, plus the value of the services performed to deliver the goods from the border of the exporting country to the border of the importing country).
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
All roundwood except wood fuel is industrial roundwood. In production statistics, it is an aggregate comprising sawlogs and veneer logs; pulpwood, round and split; and other industrial roundwood. It is reported in cubic metres solid volume underbark (i.e. excluding bark).
Originator: FAO, Forestry Division
Owner: FAO
The inflation rate of an index for any month refers to the percentage change in the index value for the month as compared to the index value of the corresponding month of the previous year. Global and regional food consumer price inflation measures food inflation for a group of countries at different geographical scales: Africa, Europe, Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and Asia. Global and regional inflation are calculated using household consumption expenditure weights.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Country area excluding area under inland waters and coastal waters.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Land area equipped with irrigation infrastructure and equipment, in working order, to provide water to crops. The equipment does not have to be used during the reference year. The area equipped for irrigation covers areas equipped for fully controlled irrigation by any of the methods of surface, sprinkler or localized irrigation. It also includes areas under partially controlled irrigation methods of spate irrigation (controlling floodwater to water crops), equipped wetlands and inland valley bottoms and equipped flood recession. It excludes manual watering of plants using buckets, watering cans or other devices.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Livestock primary production includes products from live and slaughtered animals. Products from slaughtered animals include meat, offals, raw fats, fresh hides and skins. Products from live animals include milk, eggs, honey, beeswax and fibres of animal origin.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Meat is defined as the flesh of animals (excluding fish) used for food. In production data, meat is normally reported inclusive of bone and exclusive of meat that is unfit for human consumption. As reported by individual countries, meat production data may refer either to commercial production (meat entering marketing channels), inspected production (from animals slaughtered under sanitary inspection), or total production (the total of the above-mentioned categories plus slaughter for personal consumption). All FAO annual production data refer to total production
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Whole fresh milk production from buffaloes, camels, cows, goats and sheep.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Value in USD of exports minus imports.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Oil-bearing crops or oil crops include both annual (usually called oilseeds) and perennial plants whose seeds, fruits or mesocarp and nuts are valued mainly for the edible or industrial oils that are extracted from them. Oil crops exclude dessert and table nuts, although they are rich in oil, as well as annual oilseed plants that are either harvested green or are used for grazing and for green manure. Some oil crops are also fibre crops in that both the seeds and the fibres are harvested from the same plant (for example coconuts, kapok fruit, seed cotton, linseed and hempseed).
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
The paper and paperboard category is an aggregate category. In the production and trade statistics, it represents the sum of graphic papers; sanitary and household papers; packaging materials and other paper and paperboard. It excludes manufactured paper products such as boxes, cartons, books and magazines, etc.
Originator: FAO, Forestry Division
Owner: FAO
Land cultivated with long-term crops that do not have to be replanted for several years (such as cocoa and coffee), land under trees and shrubs producing flowers (such as roses and jasmine), and nurseries (except those for forest trees, which should be classified under “Forestry”) are all considered land under permanent crops. Permanent meadows and pastures are excluded from land under permanent crops.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Land used permanently (five years or more) to grow herbaceous forage crops through cultivation or naturally (wild prairie or grazing land) is considered land under permanent meadows and pastures. Permanent meadows and pastures on which trees and shrubs are grown should be recorded under this heading only if the growing of forage crops is the most important use of the area. Measures may be taken to keep or increase productivity of the land (i.e. use of fertilizers, mowing or systematic grazing by domestic animals.) This class includes:
• grazing in wooded areas (agroforestry areas, for example)
• grazing in shrubby zones (heath, maquis, garigue)
• grassland in the plain or low mountain areas used for grazing: land crossed during transhumance where the animals spend a part of the year (approximately 100 days) without returning to the holding in the evening: mountain and subalpine meadows and similar; and steppes and dry meadows used for pasture.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, disinfectants and any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying or controlling any pest, including vectors of human or animal disease, unwanted species of plants or animals causing harm during or otherwise interfering with the production, processing, storage, transport or marketing of food, agricultural commodities, wood and wood products or animal feedstuffs, or substances which may be administered to animals for the control of insects, arachnids or other pests in or on their bodies. The term includes substances intended for use as a plant growth regulator, defoliant, desiccant or agent for thinning fruit or preventing the premature fall of fruit, and substances applied to crops either before or after harvest to protect the commodity from deterioration during storage and transport. Pesticides use data refers to quantities of pesticides applied to crops and seeds in the agricultural sector. Figures are expressed in metric tonnes of active ingredients. However, due to some country reporting practices, the data may be reported by: use in formulated product; sales; distribution; or imports for use in the agricultural sector.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
The prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity is an estimate of the percentage of people in the population who live in households classified as moderately or severely food insecure. The assessment is conducted using data collected with the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) or a compatible experience-based food security measurement questionnaire (such as the Household Food Security Survey Module – HFSSM). The probability of being food insecure is estimated using the one-parameter logistic Item Response Theory model (the Rasch model) and thresholds for classification are made cross-country comparable by calibrating the metrics obtained in each country against the FIES global reference scale, maintained by FAO. The threshold to classify “moderate or severe” food insecurity corresponds to the severity associated with the item “having to eat less” on the global FIES scale. In simpler terms, a household is classified as moderately or severely food insecure when at least one adult in the household was reported to have been exposed, at times during the year, to low-quality diets and might have been forced to also reduce the quantity of food they would normally eat because of a lack of money or other resources. It is an indicator of a lack of access to food.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Expresses the probability that a randomly selected individual from the population consumes an insufficient quantity of calories to cover their energy requirement for an active and healthy life. The indicator is computed by comparing a probability distribution of habitual daily dietary energy consumption with a threshold level called the minimum dietary energy requirement. Both are based on the notion of an average individual in the reference population.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Producer prices are prices received by farmers for primary crops, live animals and livestock primary products as collected at the point of initial sale (prices paid at the farm-gate).
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Figures relate to the total domestic production whether inside or outside the agricultural sector, i.e. they include non-commercial production and production from kitchen gardens. Unless otherwise indicated, production is reported at the farm level for crop and livestock products (i.e. in the case of crops, excluding harvesting losses) and in terms of live weight for fish items (i.e. the actual ex-water weight at time of catch). All data shown relate to total meat production from both commercial and farm slaughter. Data are expressed in terms of dressed carcass weight, excluding offal and slaughter fats. Production of beef and buffalo meat includes veal; mutton and goat meat includes meat from lambs and kids; and pig meat includes bacon and ham in fresh equivalent. Poultry meat includes meat from all domestic birds and refers, wherever possible, to ready-to-cook weight.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Production and crops refer to the actual harvested production from the field or orchard and gardens, excluding harvesting and threshing losses and that part of a crop not harvested for any reason. Production, therefore, includes the quantities of the commodity sold in the market (marketed production) and the quantities consumed or used by the producers (auto-consumption). When the production data available refers to a production period falling into two successive calendar years and it is not possible to allocate the relative production to each of them, it is usual to refer production data to that year into which the bulk of the production falls. Crop production data are recorded in tonnes (t). In many countries, crop production data are obtained as a function of the estimated yield and the total area. If such a compilation method of production statistics is enforced by the country, it must be ensured that the total area does not refer to sown or planted areas, which would then give the biological production, but to the actually harvested area during the year.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
National average protein supply (expressed in grams per capita per day) includes the following groups: meat, offals, animal fats and products, milk and products, eggs, fish, seafood and products, aquatic products and other.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
National average protein supply is expressed in grams per capita per day.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Waste and scraps of paper or paperboard that have been collected for reuse or trade include paper and paperboard that have been used for their original purposes and residues from paper and paperboard production.
Originator: FAO, Forestry Division
Owner: FAO
All roundwood felled or otherwise harvested and removed is comprised of all wood obtained from removals, i.e. the quantities removed from forests and from trees outside the forest, including wood recovered from natural, felling and logging losses during the period, calendar year or forest year. It includes all wood removed with or without bark, including wood removed in its round form, or split, roughly squared or in other form (e.g. branches, roots, stumps and burls, where these are harvested) and wood that is roughly shaped or pointed. It is an aggregate comprising wood fuel, including wood for charcoal and industrial roundwood (wood in the rough). It is reported in cubic metres solid volume underbark (i.e. excluding bark).
Originator: FAO, Forestry Division
Owner: FAO
Roots and tubers are plants yielding starchy roots, tubers, rhizomes, corms and stems. The denomination “roots and tubers” excludes crops that are cultivated mainly for feed (mangolds, swedes) or for processing into sugar (sugar beets), and those classified as “roots, bulb and tuberous vegetables” (onions, garlic and beets).
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Wood that has been produced from both domestic and imported roundwood, either by sawing lengthways or by a profile-chipping process and that exceeds 6 mm in thickness is sawnwood.
Originator: FAO, Forestry Division
Owner: FAO
Starchy roots include cassava and products, potatoes and products, sweet potatoes and other roots.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Height-for-age less than -2 standard deviations of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards median, among children aged 0–59 months
Originator: UNICEF
Owner: UNICEF/WHO/The World Bank: Joint child malnutrition estimates
Sugar crops include sugar beet, sugar cane, sugar crops nes.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
The number of people undernourished is obtained by multiplying estimates of the proportion of undernourished for each country by estimates of the total population. Undernourishment refers to the condition of people whose dietary energy consumption is continuously below a minimum dietary energy requirement for maintaining a healthy life and carrying out light physical activity.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Vegetable oils are the oil equivalent of oil crops, which include seeds, nuts, oil palm fruit, olives and soybeans.
Originator: FAO, Statistics Division
Owner: FAO
Water stress is the ratio between total freshwater withdrawn by all major sectors and total renewable freshwater resources, after taking into account environmental water requirements.
Originator: FAO, Land and Water Division (AQUASTAT)
Owner: FAO
Wood carbonized by partial combustion or by heat from external sources is wood charcoal. It includes charcoal used as a fuel or for other uses, e.g. as a reduction agent in metallurgy or as an absorption or filtration medium.
Originator: FAO, Forestry Division
Owner: FAO
Roundwood that will be used as fuel for purposes such as cooking, heating or power production is wood fuel. This includes wood harvested from main stems, branches and other parts of trees (where these are harvested for fuel) and wood that will be used for the production of charcoal (e.g. in pit kilns and portable ovens), wood pellets and other agglomerates. It also includes wood chips to be used for fuel that are made directly (i.e. in the forest) from roundwood. It excludes wood charcoal, pellets and other agglomerates. It is reported in cubic metres solid volume underbark (i.e. excluding bark).
Originator: FAO, Forestry Division
Owner: FAO
Wood pellets are made from wood agglomerates produced from co-products (such as cutter shavings, sawdust or chips) of the mechanical wood processing industry, furniture-making industry or other wood transformation activities. They are produced either directly by compression or by the addition of a binder in a proportion not exceeding 3 percent by weight. Such pellets are cylindrical, with a diameter not exceeding 25 mm and a length not exceeding 100 mm. They are assumed to have 8 percent moisture content.
Originator: FAO, Forestry Division
Owner: FAO
Wood pulp is fibrous material prepared from pulpwood, wood chips, particles or residues by a mechanical and/or chemical process for further manufacture into paper, paperboard, fibreboard or other cellulose products. It is an aggregate comprising mechanical wood pulp, semi-chemical wood pulp, chemical wood pulp and dissolving wood pulp. It is reported in metric tonnes air-dry weight (i.e. with 10 percent moisture content).
Originator: FAO, Forestry Division
Owner: FAO
This product category is an aggregate comprising veneer sheets, plywood, particle board and fibreboard. It is reported in cubic metres solid volume.
Originator: FAO, Forestry Division
Owner: FAO
1 FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 2023. The Impact of Disasters on Agriculture and Food Security 2023 – Avoiding and reducing losses through investment in resilience. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc7900en
2 FAO. 2023. Land Use. In: FAOSTAT. Rome. [Cited October 2023]. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/RL
3 FAO. 2023. Land Use. In: FAOSTAT. Rome. [Cited October 2023]. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/RL
4 FAO. 1999. The FAO Field Programme and agricultural development in Asia and the Pacific. In: FAO. [Cited October 2023]. https://www.fao.org/3/AC621E/ac621e00.htm
5 World Bank. 2023. World Bank Country and Lending Groups. In: The World Bank. [Cited October 2023]. https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups
6 ILO (International Labour Organization). 2022. Employment by sex and economic activity -- ILO modelled estimates. In: ILOSTAT. Geneva. [Cited October 2023]. https://www.ilo.org/shinyapps/bulkexplorer25/?lang= en&segment=indicator&id=EMP_2EMP_SEX_ECO_NB_A
7 ILO. 2023. Employment by sex, status in employment and economic activity. In: ILOSTAT. Geneva. [Cited October 2023]. https://www.ilo.org/shinyapps/bulkexplorer11/?lang=en&segment=indicator&id=EMP_TEMP_SEX_STE_ECO_NB_A
8 UN (United Nations). 2020. Time-use statistics. In: UN. [Cited October 2023]. https://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/timeuse/
9 FAO. 2022. Government expenditures in agriculture 2001–2021. Global and regional trends. FAOSTAT Analytical Brief Series No 58. Rome. https://www.fao.org/3/cc3749en/cc3749en.pdf
10 African Union. 2014. Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods. Addis Ababa, African Union Commission. https://www.au.int/web/sites/default/files/documents/31247-doc-malabo_declaration_2014_11_26.pdf
11 FAO. n.d. Climate-Smart Agriculture and Digital Agriculture. In: FAO. Rome.[Cited October 2023]. https://www.fao.org/climate-smart-agriculture/en/ and
https://www.fao.org/digital-agriculture/en/
12 FAO. n.d. Biotechnology. In: FAO. [Cited October 2023]. https://www.fao.org/biotechnology/en/
13 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) & FAO. 2019. OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2019–2028. Paris. OECD Publishing and Rome. FAO. https://doi.org/10.1787/agr_outlook-2019-en
14 FAO. 2022. Trade: Crops and livestock products. In: FAOSTAT. [Rome. Cited October 2023]. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/TCL
15 OECD & FAO. 2019. OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2019-2028. Paris. OECD Publishing and Rome. FAO. https://doi.org/10.1787/agr_outlook-2019-en
16 FAO, IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development), UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), WFP (World Food Programme) & WHO (World Health Organization). 2023. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023. Urbanization, agrifood systems transformation and healthy diets across the rural–urban continuum. Rome. FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc3017en
17 FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP & WHO. 2023. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023. Urbanization, agrifood systems transformation and healthy diets across the rural–urban continuum. Rome. FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc3017en
18 UN. n.d. Small Island Developing States. In: United Nations. [Cited October 2023]. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/sids/list
19 The methodology for compiling the food balance sheets was revised at the end of 2019. Data up to 2013 still use the previous methodology, which may cause breaks in series. More information on the new methodology is available at https://fenixservices.fao.org/faostat/static/documents/FBS/New%20FBS%20methodology.pdf. A summary of the methodological changes can be found at https://fenixservices.fao.org/faostat/static/documents/FBS/Key%20differences%20between%20new%20and%20old%20Food%20Balance%20Sheet.pdf.
20 FAO. 1998. Evaluating the potential contribution of organic agriculture to sustainability goals. In: FAO. Rome. [Cited October 2023]. https://www.fao.org/3/ac116e/ac116e00.htm
21 FAO & UN-Water. 2021. Progress on level of water stress. Global baseline for SDG 6 Indicator 6.4.2: Level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources. Rome. FAO and UN-Water. https://www.fao.org/3/cb6241en/cb6241en.pdf
