Profiling the Smallholder Farmer
Having good sources for understanding the focus of ECHO and its many friends and partners is important. How many smallholder farmers are there in total and by country or region? What is their impact on the worldwide food supply? What is that impact on a regional or country basis? Where should the international community focus more resources to save lives and help individuals, families, and communities thrive?
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Unfortunately, there is no single, reliable source that provides a comprehensive list of smallholder farmers by country. However, here are some estimates and data from various sources to give you an idea of the number of smallholder farmers in different regions and countries.
Global Estimates:
- According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, there are approximately 570 million smallholder farmers worldwide.
- The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) estimates that there are around 500 million smallholder farmers globally.
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Please note that these estimates vary widely depending on the source and definition of a smallholder farmer. Additionally, the numbers may have changed since the last available data was published.
Country-specific Estimates:
Here are some estimates of smallholder farmers by country:
- Brazil: 3-4 million
- China: 120-150 million
- India: 80-100 million
- Indonesia: 20-30 million
- Nigeria: 20-30 million
- Ethiopia: 15-20 million
- Kenya: 10-15 million
- Mexico: 5-10 million
- Colombia: 3-5 million
- Poland: 1-2 million
- Romania: 1-2 million
- Hungary: 1-2 million
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Regional Estimates:
- Asia: There are around 220 million smallholder farmers in Asia, which is the largest region in terms of number of smallholder farmers. China, India, and Indonesia have the largest number of smallholder farmers.
- Africa: There are around 150 million smallholder farmers in Africa, with Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Kenya having the largest number of smallholder farmers.
- Latin America: There are around 50 million smallholder farmers in Latin America, with Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia having the largest number of smallholder farmers.
- Europe: There are around 10 million smallholder farmers in Europe, with Poland, Romania, and Hungary having the largest number of smallholder farmers.
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- Bartol, T. (2022). Smallholders and small-scale agriculture: Mapping and visualization of knowledge domains and research trends.Cogent Social Sciences,9(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2022.2161778 2023 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative...
- Vincent Ricciardi, Navin Ramankutty, Zia Mehrabi, Larissa Jarvis, Brenton Chookolingo, How much of the world's food do smallholders produce?, Global Food Security, Volume 17, 2018, Pages 64-72, ISSN 2211-9124, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2018.05.002. The widely reported claim thatsmallholders...
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15.05.2020 Food and nutrition security has become one of the most important items on today’s international political agenda and a serious issue for governments around the world. Despite the availability of enough food globally, over a billion people continue to suffer from the lack of nutritious food. The...
- Sarah K. Lowder, Jakob Skoet, Terri Raney, The Number, Size, and Distribution of Farms, Smallholder Farms, and Family Farms Worldwide, World Development, Volume 87, 2016, Pages 16-29, ISSN 0305-750X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.10.041. Numerous sources provide evidence of trends and...
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More than 500 million smallholder farms worldwide play a significant role in food production and the genetic diversity of the food supply. Until now, it has been difficult to get information to or from smallholder farmers, compounding basic infrastructural problems such as access to inputs,...
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Bisht, I.S.; Rana, J.C.; Pal Ahlawat, S. The Future of Smallholder Farming in India: Some Sustainability Considerations.Sustainability2020,12, 3751. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093751 The biodiverse, predominantly crop-livestock mixed-farming in India is key to ensuring resilience to climate...
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Agriculture has always been at the foundation of people’s livelihoods in developing countries with the potential today to transform lives by raising incomes and reducing hunger and poverty. At the same time, agriculture in developing countries has never been under such threats. These include...
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There are no reliable maps of smallholder farms. However, farm field sizes suggest where they are most likely to be found. The number of farms in the world is estimated to be more than 570 million, of which more than 475 million (84 %) are smaller than 2 ha. More than 500 million are managed by...
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The Small Family Farms Country Factsheets are based on the Smallholder Dataportrait developed by the Small Family Farms Team in ESA, which provides valuable insights on the profile of smallholder farmers across the world. The Factsheets cover all four regions that are represented in the...
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Leah H Samberg et al 2016 Environ. Res. Lett. 11 124010 Smallholder farming is the most prevalent form of agriculture in the world, supports many of the planet’s most vulnerable populations, and coexists with some of its most diverse and threatened landscapes. However, there is little information...
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The FAOSmallholder Farmers’ Dataportrait is a comprehensive, systematic and standardized data set on the profile of smallholder farmers across the world. It can generate an image on how small family farmers in both emerging and developing countries live their lives. It is about putting in...
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The FAO smallholder farmers dataportrait is a comprehensive, systematic and standardized data set on the profile of smallholder farmers across the world. It generates an image on how small family farmers in developing and emerging countries live their lives. It is about putting in numbers, the...
- Eighty percent of the farmland in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is managed by smallholders (working on up to 10 hectares). While 75 percent of the world’s food is generated from only 12 plants and 5 animal species, making the global food system highly vulnerable to shocks, biodiversity is key to...
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Smallholder farmers are vital to food systems around the world. There are an estimated600 million smallholder farmersworking on less than 5 acres (2 hectares) of land, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Many provide affordable, fresh, and nutritious food to their local...
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FAO, 2015 About two-thirds of the developing world’s 3 billion rural people live in about 475 million small farm households, working on land plots smaller than 2 hectares. Many are poor and food insecure and have limited access to markets and services. Their choices are constrained, but they farm...
- World Economic Forum, 2021 Roughly 81 percent of all food, feed and fuel crops were grown on farms of up to 199 hectares. Taking into account the average farm sizes of the biggest crop producing countries in the world, this number becomes less surprising. China leads the world production ofrice,...
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In 2022, chronic hunger, as measured by not consuming enough calories to lead an active and healthy life, affected about 9.2 percent of the global population—nearly 1 in every 10 people.This is far higher than the rate in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, which was 7.9 percent. This means about...
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Zheng, H., Ma, W. & He, Q. Climate-smart agricultural practices for enhanced farm productivity, income, resilience, and greenhouse gas mitigation: a comprehensive review.Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change29, 28 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-024-10124-6 This study reviews the literature...
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The study employs systematic mapping combined with an online interactive platform that geographically maps results, which allows users to interrogate different aspects of the evidence through a defined database field structure. While studies are not directly comparable, the database of 746...
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Ma, W., Rahut, D.B. Climate-smart agriculture: adoption, impacts, and implications for sustainable development.Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change29, 44 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-024-10139-z The 19 papers included in this special issue examined the factors influencing the adoption of...
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03.02.2015