Credit to agriculture. Global and regional trends 2014–2023

FAOSTAT released new data on credit to agriculture. Affordable credit is critical in agriculture due to the natural gap between expenditure and revenue. Farmers usually invest in inputs like seeds, fertilizers, plant protection materials or animal feed during the planting or livestock-raising phase but only generate income after selling their production. Without timely access to affordable credit, farmers may struggle to sustain or expand their operations.

FAOSTAT provides total credit data series from 1991 to 2023 for over 212 countries and credit to agriculture data series for over 130 countries.

Main findings:

• Credit to agriculture increased by 28 percent in real terms, rising from USD 952 billion in 2014 to USD 1 215 billion in 2023, while total loans across all industries grew by 46 percent, from USD 36.3 trillion to USD 52.8 trillion.
• The share of agriculture in global credit declined from 2.62 percent in 2014 to 2.30 percent in 2023, reflecting slower growth compared to other sectors.
• Asia, reflecting the scale of its agricultural sector, led the supply of credit to agriculture. Its share in the world total went from 44 percent in 2014 to 55 percent in 2023. The share of Europe fell from 32 percent in 2014 to 23 percent. Oceania (11 percent in 2023) surpassed the Americas (10 percent) for the first time in the decade. 
• Credit to agriculture increased in China by 59 percent (from USD 173 billion in 2014 to USD 276 billion in 2023), and by 73 percent in India (from USD 115 billion to USD 199 billion). These two countries were the main drivers for Asia’s dominance in credit to agriculture.