The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) is one of the world’s leading institutes in the field of organic agriculture. FiBL’s strengths lie in its interdisciplinary research, thanks to its innovations developed jointly with farmers and the food industry as well as in its solution-oriented development projects and rapid knowledge transfer from research into practice.

It is important to specify that agroecology and organic agriculture do not constitute the same approach. Whereas organic agriculture has often focused on cropping practices and input regulation, agroecology seeks to integrate diverse system components and practices, local-knowledge, and socio-economic principles into the design of sustainable food and agricultural systems. In short, organic agriculture can be conceived under the umbrella of Agroecology since both approaches are striving to transform food systems in a particular ecological and cultural context.

The global survey on organic farming is currently carried out by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL. Numerous experts from more than 180 countries are contributing to the data collection.  This annual survey on organic agriculture worldwide is supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the International Trade Centre (ITC), the Sustainability Fund of Coop Switzerland, and NürnbergMesse, the organizers of the BIOFACH fair.

The number of organic producers was reported to be around 2.8 million according to  data from 186 countries (data as of the end of 2018). India continues to be the country with the highest number of producers, followed by Uganda and Ethiopia.

The market research company, Ecovia Intelligence, estimates that the global market for organic food surpassed 100 billion US dollars for the first time in 2018. The United States is the leading market, followed by Germany and France.

A total of 71.5 million hectares were organically managed at the end of 2018, representing a growth of 2.9 percent compared to 2017. Oceania (36.0 million hectares) has the largest organic agricultural area followed by Europe (15.6 million hectares) and Latin America (8 million hectares).