fao statistical yearbook 2012
DESCRIPTION
This publication presents a visual synthesis of the major trends and factors shaping the global food and agricultural landscape and their interplay with broader environmental, social and economic dimensions. In doing so, it strives to serve as a unique reference point on the state of world food and agriculture for policy-makers, donor agencies, researchers and analysts as well as the general public.TRANSCRIPT
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6
FAO
The 2011 edition of the FAO Statistical Yearbook
presents a visual synthesis of the major trends and
factors shaping the global food and agricultural
landscape and their interplay with broader environmen-
tal, social and economic dimensions. The publication
serves as a unique reference point on the state of world
food and agriculture for policy-makers, donor agencies,
researchers and analysts as well as the general public.
The book is subdivided into four thematic parts, where
an exhaustive spectrum of the issues relevant to the
subject matter is presented:
Part 1 The setting measures the state of the agricultural
resource base, by assessing the supply of land, labour,
capital, inputs and the adequacy of infrastructure, and
also examines the pressure on the world food system
stemming from demographic and macroeconomic
change
Part 2 Hunger dimensions gauges the state of food
insecurity and malnutrition, measuring the multitude of
dimensions that give rise to hunger and those that
shape undernourishment
Part 3 Feeding the world evaluates the past and present
productive capacity of world agriculture together with
the role of trade in meeting changing food, feed and
other demands
Part 4 Sustainability dimensions examines the sustai-
nability of agriculture in the context of the pressure it
exerts on the environment, including the interaction of
agriculture with climate change, and how it can provide
ecosystem services in relation to the bio-based
economy
I2490E/1/02.12
ISBN 978-92-5-107084-0 ISSN 2225-7373
9 7 8 9 2 5 1 0 7 0 8 4 0
FAO
Sta
tistical Ye
arb
ook 2
012
World foodand
agriculture
FAOStatisticalYearbook
2012
-
FAO STATISTICAL YEARBOOK
2012
World Food and Agriculture
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 2012
i
-
The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.
The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of FAO.
ISBN 978-92-5-107084-0
All rights reserved. FAO encourages reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product. Non-commercial uses will be authorized free of charge, upon request. Reproduction for resale or other commercial purposes, including educational purposes, may incur fees. Applications for permission to reproduce or disseminate FAO copyright materials, and all queries concerning rights and licences, should be addressed by e-mail to [email protected] or to the Chief, Publishing Policy and Support Branch, Office of Knowledge Exchange, Research and Extension, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy.
FAO 2012
-
CONTENTS Introduction: 1Preface 1Foreword 2How to use this book 3
Part 1 The setting: 5
People and demography 8Women in agriculture 12Land and water resources 14Labour 18Capital and investment 22Inputs 26Infrastructure 28Macroeconomy 32Tables 36Definitions and sources 72
Part 2 Hunger dimensions: 81
Risks, hazards and shocks 84Undernourishment 88Diets 92The spectrum of malnutrition 96Trade, food stability and food security 100Food prices and food price volatility 104Poverty and inequality 110Good governance 114Education, health and sanitation 116Food aid 122Tables 124Definitions and sources 163
Part 3 Feeding the world: 171
Aggregate agriculture 174Sources of growth in crop production 178Trends in the crop sector 182Trends in the livestock sector 198Trends in the fisheries sector 202Trends in agricultural trade 208Urban and peri-urban agriculture 214Food losses 216Tables 218Definitions and sources 270
Part 4 Sustainability dimensions: 281
Land 284Water 290Pollution from agriculture 294Climate change 300Biodiversity and conservation 306Organic farming 308Genetically modified crops 312Agriculture and the bio-based economy 316Tables 320Definitions and sources 344
Part 5 Metadata: 353Concepts and methods 357Bibliography 361
iii
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iv
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Introduction
PrefaceThere is currently a wealth of statistics on food and agriculture being provided bothby FAO and other global data suppliers. Not only are the volume and coverage ofdata vast, but so is the diversity. This is a reflection of the fact that agriculture is nowincreasingly intertwinedwithmany other sectors, the environment, the wider economyand with society.
However, we noticed a clear gap in the knowledge arena in terms of a missing platformthat brings together all of the data in a coherent and systematic way, so that readerscan easily access and absorb the depth and breadth of agricultures role in the worldtoday. We hope this FAO statistical year book fills such gap.
In presenting this publication, the FAO Statistics Division would like to acknowledgethe combined efforts of statisticians around the world, in particular staff in min-istries of agriculture and statistical offices, in international institutions and in non-governmental organizations, whose efforts have made this publication possible.
This book has been prepared by a team from the FAO Statistics Division led by AdamPrakash and Matthieu Stigler, with substantial technical assistance from Filippo Gheri.
We acknowledge the comments and suggestions from within FAOs Economic and So-cial Department, including Denis Drechsler, Concepcin Calpe, Piero Conforti, JelleBruinsma, Josef Schmidhuber, Seth Meyer, Amy Heyman, Carlo Cafiero, NathalieTroubat, Chiara Brunelli, Eve Crowley and Elisenda Estruch. Valuable comments fromcolleagues in other FAO departments are also acknowledged, especially Tsuji Sachiko,Karen Frenken, Eugenia Serova, Lorraine Williams, John Ruane, Andrea Sonnino andModibo Traore.
We would also like to thank Natalia Ermolaev for editorial assistance. The contributionof Boris Veytsman in designing and producing book via a dedicated LATEX package is ac-knowledged and that of Giancarlo de Pol for the graphical concept. Finally, EmmanuelBlondel and Professor Roger Bivand provided precious assistance on the presentationof geo-referenced data, and Guido Barbaglia for the data download API.
We would also like to take this opportunity to say a few words about how the FAOStatistical Yearbook was produced. This book has been created with innovative open-source tools, employing a combination of R and LATEX to generate the entire publication:from data retrieval to data processing to indicator construction to a blueprint-readyPDF file for distribution. Our innovation circumvented the traditional route of manualproduction, involving costly software licenses, significant labour costs and inefficien-cies associated with a lack of cycle integration. The RLATEX solution also empoweredFAO statisticians in managing how their data were to be presented.
Adam Prakash, Matthieu Stigler
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Foreword
Achieving food security for all is at the heart of FAOs mission, by making sure peo-ple have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. Ourmission is premised on the need to raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural pro-ductivity, better the lives of rural populations and ensure that agriculture can be asustainable platform for economic growth. Beyond its essential role in food security,sustainable agricultural development is now regarded as pivotal in strategies towardspoverty alleviation. In addition, policy makers agree that agriculture will be key toeffectively address challenging issues of our time, including climate change, waterscarcity, environmental pollution and land degradation. Agriculture has a clear rolein providing ecosystem services to protect the environment and preserve our planetsnatural resource base. With the sector now intertwined with almost every topic in thedevelopment agenda, a major challenge is to capture and monitor the multiple rolesof agriculture.
Providing reliable and timely information on the status of food and agricultural sectorsin multiple contexts is an important part of the FAO mandate and in particular ofthe FAO Statistics Division. In response to the demands for a more comprehensiveset of statistics and indicators that are amenable to an ever-widening audience, wehave attempted to meet the challenge through radically overhauling the usual FAOStatistical Yearbook format. The revised publication will continue the long traditionof the FAO Statistical Yearbook series as the foremost collection and reference pointof statistical data on food and agriculture, but the new publication marks a transition.In rising to the call for a broader and more in-depth examination of the many rolesof agriculture, this edition leans towards a thematically-driven, statistical snapshot ofthe major trends and issues related to world food and agriculture. Divided into fourparts and encompassing 34 dimensions of food and agrciulture, the new FAO StatisticalYearbook employs over 350 indicators drawn from data sources within FAO, sister UNagencies, the World Bank and other international organizations.
The new Yearbook approach makes us all keenly aware of the need to improve thequality, quantity and scope of agricultural and development statistics. Concerted ef-forts are, however, being made by FAO and our partners to enhance country capacitiesin providing better and more statistical information. Though presenting an accessiblestatistical synthesis of the key issues affecting world food and agriculture, it is ourdesire that the book raises awareness about the multiple challenges confronting thesector, thereby strengthening FAOs resolve towards fighting hunger and improving thelivelihoods of the rural poor.
Pietro Gennari
Director, FAO Statistics Division
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How to use this book
The 2012 edition of the FAO Statistical Yearbook represents a break away from FAOtradition. Through employing data from global statistical providers, including FAO,the publication presents a visual synthesis of the major trends and factors shaping theglobal food and agricultural landscape and their interplay with broader environmental,social and economic dimensions. In doing so, it strives to serve as a unique referencepoint on the state of world food and agriculture for policy-makers, donor agencies,researchers and analysts as well as the general public.
The book is subdivided into four thematic parts, where an attempt is made to exhaus-tively present the spectrum of issues relevant to the subject matter:
Part 1 The setting measures the state of the agricultural resource base, by assess-ing the supply of land, labour, capital, inputs and the adequacy of infrastructure,and also examines the pressure on the world food system stemming from demo-graphic and macroeconomic change
Part 2 Hunger dimensions gauges the state of food insecurity and malnutrition, mea-suring the multitude of dimensions that give rise to hunger and those that shapeundernourishment
Part 3 Feeding the world evaluates the past and present productive capacity of worldagriculture together with the role of trade in meeting changing food, feed andother demands
Part 4 Sustainability dimensions examines the sustainability of agriculture in the con-text of the pressure it exerts on the environment, including the interaction ofagriculture with climate change, and how it can provide ecosystem services inrelation to the bio-based economy
Multiple page spreads are used to present each thematic issue. Each spread containsa visualization of the data by way of maps and charts and is accompanied by text thatprovides a background to the salient issues as well as an assessment of current trends.
Data are made available for virtually all countries in the world, excluding principalitiesand minor territories.
We follow the M49 convention of the United Nations Statistics Division in reportinggeographical regions for statistical use. See (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm). The most recent data are given, but when country data havenot been reported for the reference year, an asterisk (*) is placed on the year label toindicate closest to that year.
How to retrieve Yearbook data
The data used in this book are presented via charts and maps that form the basis of keyindicators. A more detailed overview of the data is provided by way of tables locatedat the end of each thematic part. Documentation about the data, their methodologyand sources can be found through the MetaLink key below each indicator. For the webversion, the user can simply click on the MetaLink key, and will be directed to infor-mation about the data. Furthermore, a small icon allows the user to directly downloadthe data presented in each indicator.
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The Webservice API
Underlying the direct download is a new Webservice system that gives direct accessto the datasets employed by the Yearbook. While most users will simply use the icon-based direct link, those users who regularly use the data will undoubtedly benefit fromthe Webservice facility. The Webservice relies on REST API technology, which offersdifferent ways to access the data, as well as alternative formats for retrieving them.
Base link: The base link is http://ldvapp07.fao.org:8030/wds/api?db=faosyb
Output format: Users can either visualise the data in the web browser with out=hmtlor download data in csv, Excel xls or xml by specifying the argument: out=csv(or excel, or xml).
The content: The Webservice offers different ways to specify the data to download:
By object key as provided in the book: download all the data usedin the given chart/map/table, and is executed by using the argument:object=chart5. For example:
http://ldvapp07.fao.org:8030/wds/api?db=faosyb&out=html&object=chart5
By dataset name: download all the data contained in a given dataset (of-ten more than what is provided by the indicator). Executed by using theargument: dataset=x. For example:
http://ldvapp07.fao.org:8030/wds/api?db=faosyb&out=html&dataset=P1.DEM.UN.WPP.FER.TOT
Finally, a few specific requests are provided that allow users to retrieve:
The list of dataset keys used and their label. Use:http://ldvapp07.fao.org:8030/wds/api?db=faosyb&out=html&dataset=list
The list of country codes, with their equivalent in ISO2, ISO3, UN and GAUL code.Use:
http://ldvapp07.fao.org:8030/wds/api?db=faosyb&out=html&findcode=list
Yearbook data directly accessible from within the statistical software R
To further facilitate the download and use of the data contained in the Yearbook, theWebservice API will be callable from within R a free and open-source software plat-form popular worldwide. To keep abreast of updates, readers and users are encouragedto visit the Yearbooks website:
www.fao.org/economic/ess/syb
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PART
1The setting
Introduction
Well over half of the developing worlds population 3.1 billion people, or 45 percentof all humanity live in rural areas. Of them, roughly 2.5 billion derive their livelihoodsfrom agriculture. For many economies, especially those of developing countries, agri-culture can be an engine of economic growth. Approximately two-thirds of the worldsagricultural value added is generated in developing countries, and in many of them theagricultural sector contributes as much as 30 percent to the Gross Domestic Product(GDP) and is a source of employment for two-thirds of the labour force. According tothe World Bank, growth in the agricultural sector can be up to 3.2 times more effectiveat reducing US$1/day poverty than growth in other sectors. Importantly, agriculturecan provide a haven of resilience against global economic and financial turmoil, oftenmore effectively than other sectors.
A look back through history reveals that growth in agriculture has tended to be the an-tecedent of wider economic development. From the Industrial Revolution that beganin England in the 18th century and spread to other now-developed countries, throughto more recent examples of China or Viet Nam, agriculture has always been the pre-cursor to the rise of industry and services. In many poor developing countries, primaryactivities such as agriculture still constitute the backbone of the economy. Inadequateinfrastructure, incomplete markets and a large presence of subsistence producers are
-
frequent characteristics of these economies. Strategies to promote economic growthmust be firmly anchored in agriculture. Increasing productivity in the sector is a neces-sary condition for resources to migrate towards non-agricultural activities, thus grad-ually diversifying the economy.
Yet, a profound and prolonged lack of investment in agriculture is evident in manycountries. Notably, infrastructure is missing or weak in rural areas, agricultural pro-ductivity is stagnant and the lack of opportunities for income diversification combineswith poor functioning markets to undermine economic growth.
These conditions, however, can be changed. There is now a growing recognition amonggovernments and donor agencies that agriculture must be the mainstay of any devel-opment agenda and of policies towards economic growth. The reaffirmation of thesectors role in this context provides fresh impetus for fostering investment and rais-ing productivity in agriculture.
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Key Resources
The State of Food and Agriculture
The State of Food and Agriculture, FAOsmajor annual flagship publication, aimsat bringing to a wider audience balancedscience-based assessments of importantissues in the field of food and agriculture.Each edition of the report contains a com-prehensive, yet easily accessible, overviewof a selected topic of major relevance forrural and agricultural development andfor global food security. This is supple-mented by a synthetic overview of the cur-rent global agricultural situation.
2009: Livestock in the balance
2010-11: Women in Agriculture: Closingthe gender gap for development
Publication cycle: Annual
Webpage: www.fao.org/publications/sofa
Looking Ahead in World Food and Agriculture
How will the world feed itself in 2050?This volume, which is a compilation of pa-pers authored by world-class experts, ad-dresses this very question. Agriculturaland food demand is expected to slow overthe next decades, following slowing pop-ulation growth and rising incomes. How-ever, population will still grow consider-ably in the coming decades, and requireworld agricultural production to increasesubstantially by 2050. Other areas ex-plored in the volume are natural resources notably land and water as well as cap-ital, investment and technology.
Webpage: http://www.fao.org/economic/esa/esag/en/
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PART 1
People and demography
Even though growth rates have been slowing since thelate 1970s, theworlds population has nevertheless dou-bled since that time to 6.9 billion, and is projected to in-crease considerably over the next decades. In many de-veloping countries, a combination of declining mortal-ity rates, prolonged life expectancy, youthful age struc-tures and high fertility warrant considerable populationincreases that are likely to continue until the end of thetwenty-first century. Of concern is that where populationgrowth is the highest, income levels are the lowest. Forpoor population groups, consumption tends to be heav-ily influenced by local production. This may lead to theemergence of Malthusian Islands, particularly in partsof sub-Saharan Africa, where population growth is out-stripping the current productive capacity of the land.
According to the most recent revision of the UNs WorldPopulation Prospects, countries with low fertility rates that is, most developed countries and much of EastAsia currently account for around 40 percent of theworlds population. In these countries, each woman doesnot have enough children to ensure that, on average,she will be replaced by a daughter who survives to theage of procreation. Another 40 percent is situated inintermediate-fertility countries, where each woman has,on average, between 1 and 1.5 female offspring. Theremaining 18 percent in much of sub-Saharan Africa,parts of the Near East and South Asia is located in high-fertility countries where the average woman has morethan 1.5 daughters. These countries provide the highestpotential for future population growth.
The trajectory of the worlds future population restsheavily on assumptions about fertility rates. If rates inhigh-fertility countries continue to grow unabated, anadditional two billion people will need to be fed by theturn of the century. This underscores the importanceof empowering women and couples through educationand promoting family planning, especially in the poorestcountries where population growth rates are currentlythe fastest. Indeed, though most people would like toand do have smaller families than they did in the past,many in fact have more children than they desire. Ac-cording to the United Nations Population Fund, approx-imately 215 million women who would use contracep-tives lack access to them. At the same time, there arecontexts in which poverty can be a reason for high fertil-ity, given the role of children in providing a labour forcefor the household and support for the elderly.
Worldwide, people can expect to live longer than everbefore. In the past two decades alone, global life ex-pectancy has risen approximately five years to nearly 69years. In all countries, the wealthy live longer than thepoor, and in most populations women usually outlivemen. In 2011, people in those least-developed coun-tries characterized by high fertility rates are expected tolive on average 58 years, some 20 years less than theircounterparts in developed countries. Nevertheless, thisaverage marks a significant increase when compared tolife expectancy in 1990, which stood at only 50 years.
Map 1:
No Data < 0 0 1 1 2 2 3.5 > 3.5
World population growth (% p.a., 19902010)
Source: World Population Prospects - the 2010 Revision (UNESA)
Metalink: P1.DEM.UN.WPP.POP.TOT, p. 73
6896 million people living in the worldin 2010
Virtually all global population growthcentred in developing countries
However, world population growth todayis half of what it was in the 1960s
8
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PEOPLE AND DEMOGRAPHY
No Data < 0 0 1 1 2 2 3.5 > 3.5
World population growth (% p.a., 19902010)
Chart 1: Very high fertility rates behind faster population growth in developing regions
Fertility rate (2009)
Births
perw
oman
0
1
2
3
4
5
DevelopedEastAsia
L.Amer. &Carib.
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
Source: World Population Prospects - the 2010 Revision (UNESA)
Metalink: P1.DEM.UN.WPP.FER.TOT, p. 72
9
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PART 1
Improved access to clean water, better nutrition, livingand working conditions, and greater access to healthservices can account for the increase in life expectancy.These factors, in tandem with higher life expectancy,have led to the decline in infant mortality rates.
The worlds population is aging. Today, roughly 27 per-cent is below the age of 15 and approximately 8 percentis 65 years or older. In the past two decades these statis-tics stood at 33 and 6 percent, respectively. This agingprofile is being shaped by rising longevity twinned withlow fertility rates in the more developed countries.
Unprecedented change has also occurred in where peo-ple reside. During 2008, the worlds urban populationturned, for the first time, larger than the rural popu-lation. But only part of this trend was caused by in-creased rural-urban migration. Other reasons includethe transformation of rural settlements into urban areasand, most importantly, natural urban population growth.Essentially, much of the global population growth hastaken place in less developed countries (LDCs), predom-inately in poor urban areas and slums. Urbanizationrates in LDCs reached 4 percent per annum in the lastdecade. The three fundamental dimensions of food se-curity: availability, access and utilization differ in ur-ban and rural contexts and across urban socio-economicgroups. A greater diversity of both local and importedfood products is available in cities although, most ofthe food is not produced within city boundaries. Accessto food in urban areas is dependent on cash exchange,with some exceptions, where urban food production con-tributes directly to household intake. Reliance on pur-chased food is a leading factor in household food insecu-rity of poor urban populations, who lack a fixed income.
Allied to rising urbanization is an increase in popula-tion densities. At the world level, there are on average50 people living in every square kilometre. At 68 per-sons per km2, densities in developing countries are threetimes as high as those in developed countries. In southEast Asia, for instance, population density stands at 132per km2.
Beside birth and death rates, international migration isthe only other factor that directly accounts for a coun-trys population growth. Immigration from developingto developed countries over the period 1990 to 2010amounted to 45 million people. Presently, around 214million people (over 3 percent of the world population)officially live outside their home country.
Further reading
World Population Prospects: the 2010 revision (www.un.org/esa/population/)
UN Population Fund (www.unfpa.org/) FAO Food and Nutrition Security in Urban Environ-ments (www.fao.org/ag/agn/nutrition/urban_security_en.stm)
Chart 2: Virtually all population growth centred in de-veloping countries
Population (1960-2010)
Billion
s
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Developed Developing
Source: World Population Prospects - the 2010 Revision (UNESA)
Metalink: P1.DEM.UN.WPP.POP.TOT, p. 73
Chart 3: ... and in cities
Urban population (1960-2010)
Billion
s
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Developed Developing
Source: World Urbanization Prospects (UNESA)
Metalink: P1.DEM.UN.WUP.POP.URB, p. 73
10
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PEOPLE AND DEMOGRAPHY
Map 2: Population density highest in Asia and Europe but rising in coastal Africa
No Data < 40 40 60 60 100 100 250 > 250Population density (people per km2, 2010)
Source: World Population Prospects - the 2010 Revision (UNESA)
Metalink: P1.DEM.UN.WPP.POP.DEN, p. 72
Chart 4: Rural to urban population shift more prevalentin developing countries
Rural/urban population growth (2000-10)
Urban (%)
Rural(%)
-10
-5
0
5
0 2 4 6 8
Developed country Developing country
Source: World Urbanization Prospects (UNESA)
Metalink: P1.DEM.UN.WUP.POP.URB, p. 73
Chart 5: Populations in developing regions gettingyounger, but aging in developed regions
Population ages 0-14 and 65 +, share of total (2010)
%
0
10
20
30
40
DevelopedEastAsia
L.Amer. &Carib.
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
Old Young
Source: World Population Prospects - the 2010 Revision (UNESA)
Metalink: P1.DEM.UN.WPP.POP.AGE, p. 72
11
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PART 1
Women in agriculture
Women make significant contributions to the rural econ-omy in all developing country regions. Roles differ acrossregions, yet they consistently have less access than mento the resources and opportunities they need to be moreproductive. Closing the gender gap in agricultural inputsalone could lift 100150 million people out of hunger.
Women comprise, on average, 43 percent of the agricul-tural labour force in developing countries, ranging from20 percent in Latin America to 50 percent in Eastern Asiaand sub-Saharan Africa. Their contribution to agricul-tural work varies even more widely depending on thespecific crop and activity. But a gender gap is foundfor many assets, inputs and services land, livestock,labour, education, extension and financial services, andtechnology and it imposes costs on the agriculturesector, the broader economy and society as well as onwomen themselves.
Closing the gender gap in agriculture would generatesignificant gains for the agriculture sector and for so-ciety. If women had the same access to productive re-sources as men, they could increase yields on their farmsby 2030 percent. This could raise total agriculturaloutput in developing countries by 2.54 percent, whichcould in turn reduce the number of hungry people in theworld by 1217 percent. The potential gains would varyby region depending on how many women are currentlyengaged in agriculture, how much production or landthey control, and how wide a gender gap they face.
No blueprint exists for closing the gender gap, but somebasic principles are universal: governments, the interna-tional community and civil society should work togetherto eliminate discrimination under the law, to promoteequal access to resources and opportunities, to ensurethat agricultural policies and programmes are gender-aware, and to make womens voices heard as equal part-ners for sustainable development. Achieving genderequality and empowering women in agriculture is notonly the right thing to do it is also crucial for agricul-tural development and food security.
Further reading
FAO The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-11:Women in Agriculture - closing the gender gap for de-velopment (www.fao.org/publications/en/)
FAO Gender (www.fao.org/gender) en/)
Map 3:
No Data < 10 20 30 40 > 40
Female share of the agricultural labour force (%, 2010*)
Source: KILM (ILO)
Metalink: P1.RES.ILO.LAB.GEND, p. 77
Increasing womens access to land, live-stock, education, financial services, ex-tension, technology and rural employ-ment would boost agricultural produc-tivity
Closing the gender gap in agriculturalinputs alone could lift 100-150 millionpeople out of hunger
12
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WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE
No Data < 10 20 30 40 > 40
Female share of the agricultural labour force (%, 2010*)
Chart 6: Stark gender disparities in land holdings are apparent in all regions
Share of male and female agricultural holders in developing regions (2005)
%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
L.Amer. &Carib.
N.AfricaS.Asia &SE.Asia
Sub-SAfrica
W.Asia
Female Male
Source: FAO, Gender and Land Rights Database
Metalink: P1.RES.ILO.GEND.HLD, p. 77
13
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PART 1
Land and water resources
At present, more than 1.5 billion hectares of the globesland surface (about 12 percent) is used for crop produc-tion (arable land and land under permanent crops). Ac-cording to FAO, there is little scope for further expansionof agricultural land. Despite the presence of consider-able amounts of land potentially suitable for agriculture,much of it is covered by forests, protected for environ-mental reasons, or employed for urban settlements.
Potentially accessible agricultural land is very unevenlydistributed between regions and countries. Some 90 per-cent is situated in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa,and half is concentrated in just seven countries (Brazil,Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, the Sudan,Argentina, Colombia and the Plurinational State of Bo-livia). At the other extreme, there is virtually no spareland available for agricultural expansion in South Asia,the Near East and North Africa.
So far, land and water management systems have beenable to meet the rapidly rising demands placed on them.This was made possible through gains in yields thanksto increased use of inputs, technology and irrigation.
World agricultural production has grown between 2.5and 3 times over the last 50 years while the cultivatedarea (permanent cropland and arable land) has grown byonly 12 percent. More than 40 percent of the increasein food production came from irrigated areas, whichhave doubled in surface. These outcomes underscore thesteady trend toward precision agriculture and commer-cialization of all types of food and industrial crops.
In the same period, global cultivated land per persongradually declined from 0.44 hectares to less than 0.25hectares - a clear measure of successful agricultural in-tensification. But, the distribution of land suitable forcropping is skewed against those countries which havemost need to raise production. In low-income countries,cultivated land area per person is less than half of thatin high-income countries, and its suitability for agricul-ture is generally lower. Availability of land for cultivationdoes not necessarily equate to equitable access in real-ity, as women, indigenous people and ethnic minoritiesoften lack access to land for farming enterprise.
The concentration of high-input irrigated agriculture onprime land has relieved pressure on land expansion tosome extent. However, many irrigation systems are per-forming well below their potential, and there is consid-erable scope for improving the productivity and the effi-ciency of land and water use in agriculture. While muchof the prime agricultural land suitable for irrigation hasbeen developed, the global expansion of irrigated areahas virtually stalled to 0.6 percent per year after growingtwice as much in the 1990s. Growth remains fractional,even when the stagnation of irrigation-intensive rice cul-tivation in Asia is taken into account.
Map 4:
No Data < 0.07 0.07 0.15 0.15 0.3 0.3 0.5 > 0.5
Arable land (hectares per person, 2009)
Source: FAO, Statistics Division (FAOSTAT)
Metalink: P1.RES.FAO.ESS.LDAQ.ARL, p. 75
0.2 hectares of arable land availableper person in 2009, less than half theamount 50 years ago
Arable land availability per person low-est in Near East and many parts of Asia,but higher availability in developed re-gions and in South America
In many low income countries, croplandper person is far more scarce, thereforebridging yield gaps will be needed tosustain production with high populationgrowth
14
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LAND AND WATER RESOURCES
No Data < 0.07 0.07 0.15 0.15 0.3 0.3 0.5 > 0.5
Arable land (hectares per person, 2009)
Chart 7: Arable land per person declining in all regions, and at very low levels in devel-oping regions
Arable land (1992-2009)
hectares
perp
erson
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
1995 2000 2005
Developed East Asia South Asia Sub-S Africa L. Amer. & Carib.
Source: FAO, Statistics Division (FAOSTAT)
Metalink: P1.RES.FAO.ESS.LDAQ.ARL, p. 75
15
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PART 1
Although rainfed agriculture is the worlds predominantagricultural production system, increasing climate vari-ability is bringing greater uncertainty in production lev-els. Current productivity in rainfed systems is, on aver-age, reaching little more than half of its potential. In thepoorest countries, only one-fifth of productivity poten-tial is obtainable under conditions where the requiredagricultural inputs are available and appropriate man-agement is applied.
Water availability is a growing constraint in areas wherea high proportion of renewable water resources is al-ready used, or where transboundary water resourceman-agement cannot be developed because agreements oncooperative use are not in place. Overall, increasing wa-ter scarcity constrains irrigated production, particularlyin the most highly stressed countries and areas. Becausemany important food production zones are dependenton groundwater, declining aquifer levels and abstractionof non-renewable groundwater present a growing risk tofood production systems.
In the coming decades, climate change may bring fur-ther risks and unpredictability to harvests, whether fromwarming and related aridity, shifts in rainfall patterns, orthe frequency and duration of extreme weather events.Water availability and its distribution may also be pro-foundly affected. While warming may extend the fron-tier of agriculture in higher-latitude areas (both north-ern and southern hemispheres), it is anticipated that keyagricultural systems will have to cope with new temper-ature, humidity and water stress. This makes the need toincrease the efficiency of land and water use even moreurgent.
Further reading
FAO The State of theWorlds Land andWater Resourcesfor Food and Agriculture (SOLAW): managing systems atrisk 2011 (www.fao.org/nr/solaw/solaw-home/en/)
Bruinsma (2011) FAO Natural Resources and Environment Department(http://www.fao.org/nr/)
Chart 8: Agricultural land availability low in food-insecure regions
Agricultural land area (2009)
Millionha
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
DevelopedEastAsia
L.Amer. &Carib.
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
Cropland Pasture Land
Source: FAO, Statistics Division (FAOSTAT)
Metalink: P1.RES.FAO.ESS.LDAQ.ARPCL, p. 75
Chart 9: But large potential for arable land expansion inLatin America and in sub-Saharan Africa
Arable land potential (2009*)
Millionha
0
200
400
600
800
DevelopedEastAsia
L.Amer. &Carib.
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
Source: FAO, Statistics Division
Metalink: P1.RES.FAO.LAN.ALP, p. 76
16
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LAND AND WATER RESOURCES
Map 5: Per capita renewable water resources lowest in North Africa and the Near East
No Data < 500 500 1000 1000 1700 1700 5000 > 5000Water resources, renewable per capita (per capita m3 yr, 2009)
Source: FAO, Land and Water Division (AQUASTAT)
Metalink: P1.RES.FAO.NRL.WTRpc, p. 76
Chart 10: Greater abundance of water resources on a percapita basis in Oceania and the Americas
Water resources, renewable per capita (1992 and 2009)
Perc
apita
m3 /yr
0
10000
20000
30000
Africa Americas Asia Europ
eOcean
ia World
1992 2009
Source: FAO, Land and Water Division (AQUASTAT)
Metalink: P1.RES.FAO.NRL.WTRpc, p. 76
Chart 11: Africa lags behind other regions in the shareof land equipped for irrigation
Total area equipped for irrigation (2008*)
Millionha
0
100
200
300
400
500
Africa Americas Asia Europ
e
Area equiped for irrigation Cropland
Source: FAO, Land and Water Division (AQUASTAT)
Metalink: P1.RES.FAO.NRL.TAEI, p. 76
17
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PART 1
Labour
In developing regions, especially those least devel-oped and those experiencing rapidly rising populations,employment growth is driven mostly by demographicchanges. The majority of workers of these regions donot enter into formal wage employment, but insteadare engaged in self-employment or unpaid family work,such as in agriculture, and especially subsistence farm-ing. Consequently, economic downturns tend to haveonly a limited impact on overall employment growth inthese economies, in contrast to industrialized economieswhere employment growth is closely linked to the busi-ness cycle. Considering that the large share of the work-ing poor are engaged in agriculture, developments inthat sector have a major impact on welfare throughoutmuch of the world.
Until 2000, agriculture was the mainstay of employmentaround the world. Since then, the services sector hasassumed this mantle and the gap between the two haswidened. Although employment growth in agriculturehas slowed, the number of workers in this sector reachedover one billion in 2009.
In sub-Saharan Africa, growth in agricultural employ-ment accounted for half of all employment growth be-tween 1999 and 2009. In South Asia, nearly 33 per centof all employment growth since 1999 was in agriculture.By contrast, agricultural employment is falling in the de-veloped economies, East Asia and Latin America and theCaribbean regions. At the global level, women are moreactive in the agricultural sector than men some 38 percent versus 33 per cent.
Labour force participation rates are usually highest inthe poorest countries. More people are employed outof necessity than by choice, as only a fraction of theworking-age population can afford not to work. Inthese countries, low unemployment figures in conjunc-tion with high labour participation rates result in largeswathes engaged in vulnerable employment and manyin working poverty. This holds for many economiesin sub-Saharan Africa, where female participation ratesfeature among the highest in the world.
Poverty is the principal driver of the high rate of childlabour in agriculture. Around 60 percent of all childlabourers 129 million girls and boys work in agri-culture. More than two-thirds of them are unpaid familymembers. The agricultural sector has the highest inci-dence of both unpaid child labour and early entry intothe workforce, which often occurs between the ages offive and seven.
Map 6:
No Data < 5 5 20 20 40 40 60 > 60
Employment in agriculture, share of total employment (%, 2010*)
Source: KILM (ILO)
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.LAB.EAT, p. 78
Over 1 billion people are employed inworld agriculture, representing 1 in 3 ofall workers
In sub-Saharan Africa over 60 percent ofthe entire workforce are involved in agri-culture
18
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LABOUR
No Data < 5 5 20 20 40 40 60 > 60
Employment in agriculture, share of total employment (%, 2010*)
Chart 12: Employment in agriculture falling worldwide, but the sector still accounts formore than half of total employment in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Employment in agriculture, share of total employment (1990-2010)
%
10
20
30
40
50
60
1995 2000 2005 2010
Developed East Asia South Asia Sub-S Africa L. Amer. & Carib.
Source: KILM (ILO)
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.LAB.EATx, p. 78
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PART 1
High rates of child labour are also caused by lack ofaccess to education, poor quality of education, limitedsupplies of affordable agricultural technology and adultlabour, hazardous practices, and the dominance of tradi-tional attitudes towards childrens participation in agri-cultural activities. However, in the context of familyfarming not all participation of children in productiveactivities is considered child labour. For instance, age-appropriate tasks that do not interfere with a childs com-pulsory schooling and that are not hazardous can be im-portant contributions to the household food security andcan provide children with agricultural and other skills fortheir future.
In the overall labour market, world unemployment in2010 stood at 205 million (a rate of 6.2 percent), whichwas virtually unchanged from the previous year, butover 15 percent higher than the pre-recession level of2007. Well over half of the increase in global unemploy-ment between 2007 and 2010 arose in the developedeconomies, even though this group comprises only one-seventh of the world labour force.
The employment-to-population ratio, which indicatesthe employment-generating capacity of an economy,globally stood at 61 per cent in 2010, around a percent-age point lower than at the onset of global economicturmoil. Put simply, this means that economies aroundthe world are not generating sufficient employment op-portunities to absorb additions to the working-age pop-ulation.
Further reading
Global Employment Trends 2011 (www.ilo.org/empelm/what/WCMS_114243)
Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM) (www.ilo.org/kilm)
FAO Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division(www.fao.org/economic/esw/)
Food, Agriculture & Decent Work (www.fao-ilo.org)
Chart 13: Wide variation in the depth of womens partic-ipation in agriculture, but their role more prominent indeveloping countries
Women in agriculture, % of female employment (2010*)
%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
DevelopedEastAsia
L.Amer. &Carib.
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
Female Male
Source: KILM (ILO)
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.LAB.GENDAG, p. 79
Chart 14: The need for paid employment is much higherin developing countries and among women
Gender employment to gender population ratio (2010*)
Male (%)
Female(%
)
50
60
70
80
20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Developed country Developing country
Source: KILM (ILO)
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.LAB.EPRF, p. 78
20
-
LABOUR
Map 7: High rates of unemployment afflict many regions, except Asia
No Data < 5 5 8 8 12 12 25 > 25Unemployment rates (%, 2009*)
Source: KILM (ILO)
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.LAB.UNFT, p. 79
Chart 15: Agriculture forms the bedrock of employmentin the poorest regions
Employment type (2010)
%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
DevelopedEastAsia
L.Amer. &Carib.
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
Agriculture Industry Services
Source: KILM (ILO)
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.LAB.EATx, p. 78
Chart 16: Considerably less women participate in incomegenerating activities than men
Labour force participation rate by gender, ages 15+ (2009)
%
0
20
40
60
80
E.Asia& Pac.
L.Amer. &Carib.
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
World
Female Male
Source: KILM (ILO)
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.LAB.PTRF, p. 79
21
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PART 1
Capital and investment
Investment drives growth and development. Additionalnet investment in capital goods (capital formation) suchas expenditure on new machinery, infrastructure andtechnology enables an economy to produce more, andmore efficiently in the future. Investment is vital to pro-moting long-run economic growth by improving produc-tivity and productive capacity.
Given its strong impact on welfare, investment is partic-ularly important in agriculture: countries that performedbest in terms of reducing poverty and hunger are alsothose that achieved higher net investment rates per agri-cultural worker. However, there has been a global slow-down in the rate of capital formation in primary agri-culture. While the rate grew annually at 1.1 percent inthe period 19751990, the rate of capital formation wasonly 0.5 percent during 19912007. This reduction wasrecorded in both developed and developing countries.
As a consequence, in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia that is, regions where many countries experience thehighest prevalence and greatest depth of hunger thegrowth of the population active in agriculture has out-stripped growth of agricultural capital stock.
Government expenditure on agriculture is positively andhighly correlated with capital formation, confirming thedecisive role of such expenditure in creating an enablingenvironment for infrastructure and sustainable access tonatural resources. It also has a significant positive im-pact on productivity: research has shown that increas-ing public spending on agriculture by 10 percent leadsto a 0.34 percent increase in a countrys agricultural totalfactor productivity.
Poorer developing countries have less capacity to fill theinvestment gap. The share of public spending on agricul-ture has fallen to an average of approximately 7 percentin developing countries and even less in Africa. Agricul-tural Official Development Assistance (ODA) decreasedby some 58 percent in real terms between 1980 and2005, even though total ODA increased significantly by112 percent over the same period. This means that theshare of ODA going to the agricultural sector fell from 17percent in 1980 to between 5 and 6 percent in 2009, withthe same downward trend observed in national budgets.
In the absence of national funding channels, financingfor the rural agenda has been bolstered by increaseddonor funding. Such assistance represents a large part ofthe agricultural budget in most rural-based economies.For 24 sub-Saharan countries, ODA averages 28 per-cent of total agricultural spending, and for Mozambique,Niger, and Rwanda, ODA averages more than 80 percent.
Map 8:
No Data < 0 0 0.5 0.5 1 1 2 > 2
Annual change in agricultural capital stock (% of GDP, 2006 2007)
Source: FAO & World Bank
Metalink: P1.RES.FAO.ESS.CAP.STK, p. 75
Around USD 100 billion dollars of invest-ment was put into agriculture globally in2007
But this is a fraction of the 5 trillion dol-lars added to world GDP in that year
Growth in investment also lags behindpopulation growth in many developingcountries
22
-
CAPITAL AND INVESTMENT
No Data < 0 0 0.5 0.5 1 1 2 > 2
Annual change in agricultural capital stock (% of GDP, 2006 2007)
Chart 17: Investment in agriculture as a share of GDP extremely low
Change in agricultural capital stock (1987 - 2007)
%of
GDP
-0.50.00.51.01.52.02.53.0
1990 1995 2000 2005
Developed East Asia South Asia Sub-S Africa L. Amer. & Carib.
Source: FAO & World Bank
Metalink: P1.RES.FAO.ESS.CAP.STK, p. 75
23
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PART 1
Investments in agricultural research and development(R&D) have shown to have very high rates of return, andthus can play an important role in alleviating hunger andpoverty. While global private funding is commonplace inhigh-income countries, it is limited in most developingcountries owing to a lack of financing opportunities andincentives for private research, and to uncertain returns.
Even though the benefits of public research initiativessuch as the Consultative Group on International Agri-cultural Research (CGIAR) and affiliated organizations(which have contributed enormously to the global poolof available agricultural technology and knowledge)have been recognized, the question of how to increaseand sustain the financing of such bodies is not straight-forward. Governments are often hesitant to make sub-stantial contributions towards entities whose benefitswill be spread well beyond the scope of their con-stituents or borders.
Commercial bank lending to agriculture in developingcountries is also low; it is less than 10 percent, for exam-ple, in sub-Saharan Africa. While the growth in privateinvestment funds targeting African agriculture is an in-teresting recent development, these current investmentsremain minor.
Given the limitations of alternative sources of invest-ment finance, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in devel-oping country agriculture could make a significant con-tribution to bridging the investment gap. FDI is alsofound to positively impact productivity growth, but onlywhen governance is sound. Given the limitations of al-ternative sources of investment finance, many develop-ing countries are making strenuous efforts to attract andfacilitate foreign investment into their agriculture sec-tors. For them, FDI is seen as a potentially importantcontributor to filling the investment gap and providingdevelopmental benefits, for example through technol-ogy transfer, employment creation and infrastructure de-velopment.
Whether these potential developmental benefits are ac-tually likely to be realized is a key concern, as FDI hasalso the potential to harm host countries. Care must betaken in the selection and formulation of business mod-els that are capable of meeting the needs of both hostcountries and investors. In addition, appropriate policyand regulatory frameworks need to be in place to en-sure that development benefits are maximized and therisks minimized. FAO promotes responsible investmentin agriculture, including building international consen-sus on Principles for Responsible Agricultural Invest-ment (RAI Principles).
Further reading FAO Investment Centre (www.fao.org/tc/tci) FAO How to Feed the World in 2050: Investment Brief(www.fao.org/wsfs/forum2050/)
FAO Foreign Invetment in Agriculture(www.fao.org/economic/est/investments/)
von Cramon-Taubadel et al. (2011) Schmidhuber et al. (2011)
Chart 18: Investment relative to GDP highest in Asiaamong developing regions
Gross capital formation (2009)
%of
GDP
0
10
20
30
40
DevelopedEastAsia
L.Amer. &Carib.
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
Source: World Bank
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.GCF.GDP, p. 77
Chart 19: Developed economies attract the lions shareof foreign investment
Foreign direct investment, Balance of Payment net inflows (2009)
Curren
tUS$
(billion)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
DevelopedEastAsia
L.Amer. &Carib.
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
1989 2009
Source: UNCTAD
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.FDI.INF, p. 77
24
-
CAPITAL AND INVESTMENT
Chart 20: Investments in mechanization low in food-insecure regions
Share of components in capital stock (2007)
%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
DevelopedEastAsia
L.Amer. &Carib.
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
Land development Livestock Machinery Plantation
Source: FAO, Statistics Division
Metalink: P1.RES.FAO.ESS.CAP.STK, p. 75
Map 9: Sub-Saharan Africa beneficiary to highest rates of official development assistance
No Data 1.13 0 1 1 50 50 250 > 250Net ODA received per capita (current US$, 2009)
Source: UNCTAD
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.ODA.PCP, p. 80
25
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PART 1
Inputs
Throughout Asia and in parts of Latin America, expand-ing seed and fertilizer use has been accompanied by cor-responding investments in irrigation, rural roads, mar-keting infrastructure and financial services that havesubsequently paved the way for dynamic commercial in-put markets. Developing such markets is vital for agri-cultural productivity growth. This is the case for sub-Saharan Africa, where large commercial input enter-prises have yet to emerge. High transaction costs, risks,and the major economies of scale involved in producing,importing, and transporting inputs, such as fertilizer, areto blame; but a key factor for the regions low input up-take is that it is generally cheaper to expand cropland toachieve production targets. As a consequence, chemicalfertilizer usage is much lower in sub-Saharan Africa thanelsewhere.
Today, Asian farmers are the major users of fertilizer.Indeed, one-third of the increase in cereal productionworldwide and half of the increase in Indias grain pro-duction during the 1970s and 1980s has been attributedto increased fertilizer consumption. The increased use offertilizer is becoming even more crucial in light of otherfactors, such as the impact of more intensive cultivationpractices and shorter fallow periods on soil fertility.
Pesticides can increase agricultural productivity, butwhen handled improperly, they are toxic to humansand other species. Usage can be reduced through Inte-grated Pest Management (IPM), which uses informationon pest populations to estimate losses and adjust pesti-cide doses accordingly. IPM has brought about tremen-dous benefits to farm profitability, the environment, andhuman health. Adoption has often been limited becauseof its complexity, but results can be extraordinarily suc-cessful. For instance, the successful control of the cas-sava mealybug in East Africa, which hitherto caused sig-nificant losses, was achieved by introducing a parasitoidwasp that is the mealybugs natural enemy.
Plant breeding also plays an important role in bolster-ing productivity by adapting cultivated varieties to lo-cal conditions and making them more resilient to biotic(e.g. insects, diseases, viruses) and abiotic stresses (e.g.droughts, floods). Studies estimate that the global yieldloss due to biotic stresses averages over 23 percent ofthe estimated attainable yield across major cereals.
Further reading
Schmidhuber & Bruinsma (2011) FAO Agriculture Department (www.fao.org/ag/)
Map 10:
No Data < 100 100 300 300 500 500 1000 > 1000
Fertilizer use (kg per ha of arable land, 2008)
Source: FAO, Statistics Division
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.FER.HA, p. 77
119 kg of fertilizer applied on average toevery hectare of cropland in the world
Fertilizer use lowest in sub-SaharanAfrica but exploiting land potentialholds the key to higher production in theregion
26
-
INPUTS
No Data < 100 100 300 300 500 500 1000 > 1000
Fertilizer use (kg per ha of arable land, 2008)
Chart 21: Herbicides - to control unwanted plants - are the most widely used form ofpesticide in the world
Global pesticide usage (2007)
thou
sand
tonn
es
0
200
400
600
800
Fungicides Herbicides Insecticides Other
Source: United States EPA
Metalink: P1.RES.FAO.ESS.PES.TYPE, p. 80
27
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PART 1
Infrastructure
One of the key factors holding back agricultural devel-opment is the absence of adequate rural infrastructure.Improvements to basic rural infrastructure, particularlyroads, electrification and storage are a prerequisite foragricultural sectors to thrive.
Considerable synergies can enhance infrastructure. In-vestments in cold storage, for instance, are only viablewith reliable and sufficient rural electrification. Like-wise, investments in milling facilities must be plannedwith adequate dry storage, electrification and feederroads. Roads, storage and processing facilities togetherfoster the creation of value chains that increase effi-ciency and minimize losses.
Rural roads and transportation link farmers to marketsand reduce transactions costs. By lowering transporta-tion costs to urban areas, farmers will earn higher re-turns for their produce and consumers benefit throughpotentially lower prices. Shorter transportation timesalso help in preserving product quality and in reducinglosses. At the same time, better transport infrastructurereduces prices for inputs, such as seeds and fertilizer, andallows farmers to step up production intensity and usetheir resources more fully and efficiently.
High transaction costs matter enormously in many de-veloping countries. For instance, while it costs only USD40 to ship a tonne of fertilizer 9 000 km from the UnitedStates of America to coastal Mombasa (Kenya), it costsanother USD 120 to take it from there to Kampala, a dis-tance of 1 000 km. High shipping costs have the same ef-fect as a high import tariff. High transaction costs makeinputs expensive for farmers, and is part of the reasonfor the very low rates of input usage and ultimately thevery low yields in sub-Saharan Africa. On the output side,high transaction costs work like an export tax, squeezingprofit margins for farmers and lowering their competi-tiveness relative to overseas famers.
In developing countries, there has been little investmentin rural infrastructure that leads to improvements inroads, electricity and post-harvest technologies. Thosewho have invested, however, have reaped considerablerewards. This holds for several countries in East Asia,where China, for instance, increased expenditures onroads by almost fourfold at the beginning of the lastdecade, with the result that by 2006, 62 percent of vil-lages were connected to their towns by paved roads.
Map 11:
No Data < 2 2 2.5 2.5 3 3 3.5 > 3.5
Quality of infrastructure (score (1 = lowest to 5 = highest), 2010)
Source: World Bank
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.INF.IX, p. 77
Poor infrastructure hampers economicdevelopment
Roads and electrification are of specialimportance
Much of Africa lags behind other regionsin terms of quality of infrastructure
28
-
INFRASTRUCTURE
No Data < 2 2 2.5 2.5 3 3 3.5 > 3.5
Quality of infrastructure (score (1 = lowest to 5 = highest), 2010)
Chart 22: Among developing regions quality of infrastructure highest in East Asia and inLatin America
Quality of infrastructure (2010)
Score(1
=lowestto5=high
est)
0
1
2
3
4
5
DevelopedEastAsia
L.Amer. &Carib.
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
Source: World Bank
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.INF.IX, p. 77
29
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PART 1
Not only rural roads but also rural electricity grids areunavailable and unreliable in many poor developingcountries. For example, only 5 percent of Africas ruralpopulation has access to electricity, while in South Asiaelectricity consumption per person is the lowest of allregions.
In developing countries, post-harvest losses alone ac-count for an estimated 25-40 percent of total agriculturalproduction. Losses can even be higher when bumperharvests overwhelm limited storage capacities.
Reducing losses ultimately means reducing pressure toraise output, and leads to less input usage and reducedpressure on scarce natural resources. Better storage alsobuffers against production shortfalls and thus helps re-duce price swings. And finally, whenmarketing is subjectto delay, adequate storage improves the quality of farmproduce and allows farmers to fetch a higher price.
Although improved export capacity in delivering sur-pluses to deficit countries has been a positive develop-ment, it is particularly important to improve productivityand resilience of production systems in countries withlimited import capacity and poor physical market inte-gration.
In addition to investment in physical infrastructure, ef-forts are needed to design and build new rural insti-tutions, enhance rural markets for inputs, outputs andcapital, equip small-scale farmers with appropriate tech-nologies and facilitate non-agricultural enterprises in ru-ral areas.
The returns to society from rural investments are high,but because of the public good nature of most of theinvestments needed, funding is likely required from thepublic sector, including governments of poor countriesthemselves, regional development banks and interna-tional development institutions.
Further reading
Schmidhuber & Bruinsma (2011) FAO Rural Infrastructure and Agro-industries Division(www.fao.org/ag/ags/rural-infrastructure/en/)
Chart 23: Access to electricity considerably lagging be-hind in poorer regions
Electricity access (2008)
%access
0
20
40
60
80
China &East Asia
LatinAmerica
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
World
ElectrificationRate
Rural Urban
Source: WEO
Metalink: P1.RES.IEA.WEO.ELEC.AC, p. 76
Chart 24: Large agricultural labour force and smallholdings negate the need for mechanized agriculture inpoorer regions
Agricultural tractors per 100 sq. km of arable land (2009)
Num
ber
0
100
200
300
400
DevelopedEastAsia
L.Amer. &Carib.
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
Source: FAO, Statistics Division
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.TRA.SKMr, p. 80
30
-
INFRASTRUCTURE
Map 12: A lack of paved roads reduces supply chain efficiency
No Data < 15 15 40 40 60 60 80 > 80Roads, paved (% of total roads, 2009*)
Source: World Bank
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.RD.PV, p. 80
Chart 25: More than twice the number of days needed to trade in sub-Saharan Africa than in developed countries
Lead time to trade (2009*)
Days(m
edian)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
DevelopedEastAsia
L.Amer. &Carib.
SouthAsia
Sub-SAfrica
Exports Imports
Source: World Bank
Metalink: P1.RES.WBK.WDI.EXP.DAY, p. 77
31
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PART 1
Macroeconomy
Changes in the wider economy and macroeconomic poli-cies affect the performance of the agricultural econ-omy. Higher economic growth raises incomes and hencedemand. Changing interest rates influence capital in-vestments, land values and storage, while inflation af-fects real interest rates, as well as input, commodity andland prices. Exchange rate fluctuations have an impor-tant bearing on international competitiveness and tradeflows. Given the growing integration of the global econ-omy, macroeconomic policies are playing an increasinglyimportant role in determining the performance of agri-cultural sectors.
Around four years have elapsed since the onset of thefastest and deepest slowdown in global economic activ-ity since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The seedsof turmoil were sown when the seemingly containablesub-prime mortgage-linked banking crisis in the UnitedStates of America escalated into a full-scale global eco-nomic crisis. Sharp contractions in output, employment,investment and trade prompted governments and cen-tral banks around the world to respond swiftly with anunprecedented array of monetary and fiscal stimulusmeasures.
Such depth of intervention was required that budgetdeficits and government debt levels in the economiesof many developed countries (particularly in the Euroarea), which were already high before the crisis, are nowregarded as unsustainable. With rising sovereign risks,the price of ensuring against sovereign debt default hasincreased alarmingly, and these economies are facingpressures from financial markets to quickly enact far-reaching fiscal austerity measures. As a result, theseeconomies face the prospect of prolonged downgradedgrowth, while deterioration in market confidence in theEuro could impair funding conditions for banks and cor-porations and thus thwart capital flows to developingeconomies. Moreover, the scale of budget deficits inmany important donor countries may negatively impactfuture aid flows.
After expanding by just over 5 percent in 2010, globalGDP growth in real terms is expected to slow to around4 percent in 2011. With real growth in developedeconomies foreseen to rise by 1.6 percent in that year,global prospects are underpinned by an expected 6 per-cent rise in the economies of developing countries. Therecovery is mostly complete in all developing regions,with the pace of growth increasingly dictated by rapidlyimproving global trade, robust domestic demand and in-creasingly binding capacity constraints.
Map 13:
No Data < 5 5 10 10 15 15 20 20 30 > 30
Share of agriculture in GDP (%, 2009*)
Source: World Bank
Metalink: P1.MAC.WBK.WDI.AGV.GDP, p. 74
Agriculture merely contributes 3 percentto global GDP
This is one third of the contribution a fewdecades ago
However, more than 25 percent of GDPis derived from agriculture in many leastdeveloped countries
32
-
MACROECONOMY
No Data < 5 5 10 10 15 15 20 20 30 > 30
Share of agriculture in GDP (%, 2009*)
Chart 26: Farmers in Latin America generate more agriculture value added than in otherdeveloping regions
Agriculture value added per worker (1990 - 2009)
Constant
2000
US$thou
sand
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
1990 1995 2000 2005
E.Asia & Pac. L. Amer. & Carib. South Asia Sub-S Africa World
Source: World Bank
Metalink: P1.MAC.WBK.WDI.AGV.PWK, p. 74
33
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PART 1
The agriculture sector, buoyed by very high commod-ity prices, has demonstrated astonishing resilience dur-ing the global economic turmoil. In 2009, the most re-cent year for which data are available, agricu