Recently, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations released the Statistical Yearbook which offers a synthesis of the major factors at play in the global food and agriculture landscape.

Key Highlights from the Yearbook

• Economic dimensions of agriculture
  • Share of agriculture in global GDP has been stable at around 4% since 2000.
  • Agriculture employed 26% (892 million people) of the global workforce, compared with 40% in 2000. 
    • India had the largest number of people working in agriculture in 2022 at 226 million people.
  • In 2022, India (76 million ha) and China (75 million ha) had the largest equipped area for irrigation.
• Production, trade, and prices of commodities
  • Americas and Europe are the largest exporters and Asia the largest importer of cereals.
  • India is top producer of milk (23% of Global share in 2022) and second largest producer of sugarcane and fisheries.
• Food security and nutrition
  • Global hunger affected 9.1% (733 million people) of the world’s population in 2023.
  • Prevalence of food insecurity is higher for women across all continents.
• Sustainability and environmental aspects of agriculture
  • Between 2000 and 2022, agricultural land declined by 91 million ha, while forest area declined by 109 million ha.
  • Greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood systems grew by 10% between 2000 and 2022.