ESA Working Paper No. 07-20

Long-Term Farming Trends.

An Inquiry Using Agricultural Censuses

May 2007

PDF (358 KB)

Agricultural and Development Economics Division
The Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations

Abstract

This paper provides a long-term and global view at current farming trends by analyzing a specially created database of farming characteristics of 17 countries across 43 different agricultural censuses representing the different developing regions of the world. The study shows that while agricultural land appears to be a constraint in central and East Asia, it has been under expansion in Latin America, Northern Africa, and most of Sub Saharan Africa. We also estimate that 9 out of 10 farms are “small” (i.e. smaller than 2 ha). These farms are more specialized in staple crops than their larger counterparts, and exhibit slower productivity growth.

Key Words:Small Farms, land distribution, agricultural census, productivity.

JEL codes: Q10 – Q15