The World's Smallest Farms Feed More People Than You Might Think, Research Shows

Oct 07, 2021

81% of global crops are grown on farms less than 199 hectares.
China leads the world production of rice, wheat and many vegetables and operates mainly small farms, to supply its own growing population
Big farms have a minority share in crop production, only contributing to 5% of worldwide crop growth.

84 percent of a total of estimated 570 million farms worldwide were cultivating less than two hectares of agricultural land in 2018. Due to the low labor productivity and grueling work conditions on small farms, their yield stands in stark contrast to their total numbers: Only 29 percent of the global production of crops for food, animal feed and fuel come from land cultivated by smallholders according to Our World in Data. As our chart shows, most of the crops still are generated on farms smaller than 200 hectares or 500 acres though.

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Video: Spraying Corn Herbicide

Border View Farms is a mid-sized family farm that sits on the Ohio-Michigan border. My name is Nathan. I make and edit all of the videos posted here. I farm with my dad, Mark and uncle, Phil. We also have a part-time employee, Brock. My dad started the farm in 1980. Since then we have grown the operation from just a couple hundred acres to over 3,000. Watch my 500th video for a history of our farm I filmed with my dad.

I started making these videos in the fall of 2019 as a way to help show what I do on a daily basis as a farmer. Agriculture is different from any other industry and I believe the more people that are showing their small piece of agriculture, helps to build our story. We face unique challenges and stressful situations but have some of the most rewarding payoffs in the end. I get to spend everyday doing what I love, raising my kids on the farm, and trying to push our farm to be better every year. I hope that I can address questions or concerns that you might have about farms and agriculture.

I hope you enjoy my content and ask questions as you have them. I do my best to answer anything I can. Thanks for watching!

I appreciate you subscribing to my channel and liking my videos. You can also find me on Facebook facebook.com/borderviewfarms and on Instagram @borderviewfarms