Since the turn of the millennium, the world of food and agriculture has seen significant change. Between 2000 and 2020, the production of primary crops rose by more than 50% while the number of persons engaged in farming fell by 17% globally. On December 12th, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations released a new statistical yearbook that provides a summary of the key elements that are significant in the world’s food and agricultural environment. This yearly publication’s 380 pages address topics like agricultural employment, agrifood trade, fertilizer and pesticide use globally, as well as environmental and climatic factors.
Many of the facts and numbers are already available in FAO’s statistical database FAOSTAT, but the yearbook’s authors use 69 figures, 32 maps, 59 data tables, and several thematic info boxes to display the most crucial information about the past, present, and future of food and agriculture. According to José Rosero Moncayo, Director of FAO’s Statistics Division, “FAO is committed to ensuring free access to current, reliable, timely, and credible statistics, necessary to chart a course toward more sustainable and equitable agrifood systems and a world free from hunger.” Four categories are used to present the statistics, which are based on FAOSTAT’s more than 20,000 indicators covering more than 245 nations and territories.
The economic aspect of agriculture is the main topic of Chapter 1. In contrast to 1,043 million people (or 40%) in 2000, 866 million people today—or 27% of the world’s workforce—work in agriculture (including forestry and fishing). In Asia, the number of persons employed in agriculture fell from over 800 million in 2000 to about 580 million in 2021. This indicates that more than one out of every four agricultural workers in the area has moved on to another industry. In contrast to Africa, where employment in agriculture expanded, half of the agricultural workforce in Europe left. Between 2000 and 2020, the economic value added by agriculture, forestry, and fishing increased by 78% in real terms, reaching USD 3.6 trillion.
In comparison to 2000, this implies an increase of USD 1.6 trillion. Value added in Africa increased by more than 147% throughout the period to reach USD 413 billion. The largest portion, 64% of the global total, was contributed by Asia, which saw a rise of 91% from USD 1.2 trillion in 2000 to USD 2.3 trillion in 2020. It is anticipated that the fall in the global contribution of agriculture to GDP through 2019 will be accompanied by an increase in overall GDP. The pandemic and COVID-19-related restrictions caused the value added of the industry and services sectors to drop while that of agriculture continued to rise, leading to an unnatural increase in agriculture’s percentage of the total in 2020.
Inputs are also covered in Chapter 1. Pesticide usage grew 30% globally between 2000 and 2020, reaching 2.7 million tonnes in 2020. Pesticide use reached its peak in 2012 and started to slightly decline in 2017. With 51% of the world’s pesticide use, the Americas led all other regions, followed by Asia (25%), Europe (18%), Africa, and Oceania. The usage of pesticides climbed from 44% to 51% in the Americas, whereas it declined by 4-5 points in Asia and Europe, to 25% and 18%, respectively. With 0.41 million tonnes, or 15% of the global total, the USA used more pesticides in absolute terms in 2020 than Brazil (0.38 million tonnes) and China combined (0.27 million tonnes). Maldives (17 kg/ha), Oman (16 kg/ha), and Saint Lucia (20 kg/ha) are the nations with the highest pesticide application rates per hectare. By combining the three minerals nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P2O5), and potassium (K2O), the total amount of inorganic fertilizers used in agriculture was 201 million tonnes in 2020. 56% of the composition comprised nitrogen, 24% phosphorus, and 20% potassium. In 2020, 49% more fertilizer was used overall than there was in 2000. Utilization of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium all rose by 49%, 40%, and 81% respectively.
A summary of the production, trading, and prices of commodities is provided in Chapter 2. Primary crop production, including that of sugarcane, maize, wheat, and rice, increased by 52% between 2000 and 2020 to reach 9.3 billion tonnes. The majority of crops grown in 2020—roughly one-third of all—were cereals. Only four crops, sugar cane (20% of the total with 1.9 billion tonnes), maize (12% with 1.2 billion tonnes), wheat, and rice (8% each with 0.8 billion tonnes), made up approximately half of the world’s primary crop production. The top producer also held a sizable portion of the world output for each crop. For instance, Brazil produced 40% of the world’s sugar cane, whilst the United States produced 31% of the world’s corn. Between 2000 and 2019, the production of vegetable oils climbed by 125%, reaching 208 million tonnes. The highest rise, at 236%, was seen in palm oil. Due to the usage of palm oil for biodiesel, it replaced soybean oil as the primary vegetable oil produced in 2006. Global meat output increased by 45% or 104 million tonnes from 2000 to 2020, reaching 337 million tonnes. In 2020, pig meat produced 33% of all meat production, with chicken producing 35% of it. Since 2000, chicken has grown the most in both absolute and relative terms (+104% or 61 million tonnes).
The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks the monthly change in a basket of international food prices, is also examined in this chapter. The index rose from 85.4 points in January 2000 to 138 points in August 2022. It peaked in 2007–2008 amid the food price crisis when cereal prices—particularly those of rice and wheat—reached all-time highs. In late 2010 and early 2011, food costs once more surged (especially sugar and dairy). The index fell during the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, reflecting the market volatility at the time. But between May 2020 and March 2022, it increased to 159.7 points, its highest value ever, as a result of many factors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on supply chains, the activity and demand rebound that occurred in 2021, and the disruption of the export of cereals and vegetable oils from Russia and Ukraine.
The data in Chapter 3’s section on food security and nutrition are remarkably comparable to those found in the SOFI report, which was published in July by five UN agencies. The 20-year trend for the prevalence of undernourishment is discouraging since it shows that undernourishment has climbed significantly between 2019 and 2020 and at a slower rate between 2020 and 2021, following a decades-long drop and five years of comparatively stable trends since 2014. In 2021, about 10% of the world’s population experienced hunger, up from 8% in 2019. The most concerning aspect of the problem is that 20.2% of Africans were undernourished in 2021. The numbers indicate that there is more food available. The average dietary energy supply (DES), expressed in calories per person per day, has been continuously rising from 2000–2002, reaching 2,963 kcal per person per day in the period 2019–2021, an increase of 9%. With 3,537 kcal per person per day, Northern America and Europe have the biggest food supplies. With only 2,589 kcal, Africa has the lowest supply. DES initially increased steadily in the area, but it stopped in 2012–2014 and started to decline once more. Asia experienced the fastest growth, with a 14% rise in dietary energy supply over the previous 20 years. However, increased access to food does not always follow from an increased supply of it. The data also shows the opposite side of malnutrition: between 2000 and 2016, obesity rates among persons aged 18 and older rose sharply throughout the globe. Obesity rates among adults increased from 8.7% in 2000 to 13.1% in 2016. Adult obesity was most prevalent in Oceania, Northern America, and Europe (all at roughly 27–28%), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean.
The environmental and sustainability issues of agriculture are covered in Chapter 4. An area about the size of Peru lost 134 million ha of agricultural land between 2000 and 2020. On the planet’s surface, there are 4.74 billion hectares of agricultural land, which includes both crops and pastures and meadows. The authors draw attention to the fact that agriculture both contributes significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is impacted by climate change. A total of 10.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Gt CO2eq) of greenhouse gases were released into the atmosphere on agricultural land in 2020, which is a 4% decrease from 2000. The reason for the reduction is that farm-gate emissions increased more than the emissions from forest conversion decreased. 7.4 Gt CO2eq, or 70% of all emissions in 2020, were caused by activities within the farm gate, with net forest conversion/deforestation (28%) and fires in humid tropical forests and organic soils (2%). In 2020, Asia accounted for 36% of global agricultural emissions, followed by the Americas (30%), Africa (23%), and Europe (9%). The enteric fermentation produced in the digestive system of ruminant animals accounted for 38% of the 7.4 Gt CO2eq of agricultural emissions produced within the farm gate (those connected to the production of crops and livestock). 24% of it came from manure that was spread on pastures. The quantity of methane produced by rice farming was 9%. Cattle and sheep meat had the highest average CO2 emissions in 2020 (30 kg and 24 kg CO2eq/kg, respectively), whereas pig and poultry meat had substantially lower emissions (1.8 kg and 0.6 kg CO2eq/kg, respectively). Although rice emits more than five times as much as wheat and coarse grains, cereals have a significantly lower emissions intensity.
