Agrifood & Primary Production

2000–2022

Global agrifood systems saw employment fall from 52.2% to 39.1% of global employment

The share of the world's workforce engaged in agrifood systems declined from 52.2 percent in 2000 to 39.1 percent in 2022. Primary production alone still accounted for about a quarter of global employment in 2021, more than half in sub-Saharan Africa and almost 60 percent in low-income countries. FAO puts total agrifood employment at about 1.23 billion people, roughly a third of the global labour force.

2000–2024

Global agrifood trade more than doubled in volume

The volume of agrifood trade more than doubled between 2000 and 2024. Greater trade integration increased the availability of food across borders while also transmitting shocks between national systems.

2018

Global agriculture reached an estimated gross output value of US$3.5 trillion

The gross value of agricultural output was estimated at US$3.5 trillion in 2018. Annual agrifood system production includes roughly 11 billion tonnes of food, 32 million tonnes of natural fibres and 4 billion cubic metres of wood.

2019

World Bank estimated hidden costs of foodborne disease at USD 95.2 billion

A 2019 World Bank study quantified the hidden costs of foodborne illness from unsafe food in low- and middle-income countries. The figure helped establish food safety as an economic as well as a health issue within agrifood system accounting.

2019

FAO analysis found nearly 3 billion people unable to afford a healthy diet

In 2019 almost 3 billion people could not afford a diet protecting against malnutrition in all its forms. A further 1 billion, mostly in lower- and upper-middle-income countries, would be unable to do so if a shock cut their income by a third. The finding established diet affordability as a core resilience measure for agrifood systems.

2020

COVID-19 pandemic and conflict drove 118 million more undernourished people in a single year

Protracted conflict, the economic fallout of the pandemic and weather extremes worsened food crises in 2020, raising the number of undernourished people by 118 million. Economic downturns dealt the hardest blow in decades to those suffering hunger. Food supply itself held up beyond initial panic-buying disruptions, attributed partly to government exemptions for the agrifood sector.

2050

FAO projected the need for 40–54 percent more food by 2050

FAO estimated that feeding a world population forecast at 9.7 billion in 2050 may require agriculture to produce 40 to 54 percent more food, feed and biofuel feedstock than in 2012, depending on the scenario. The projection framed productivity growth as the central long-run challenge for primary production.

2024

FAO broke down health-related hidden costs for 156 countries

The edition following the 2023 report detailed hidden costs arising from unhealthy dietary patterns that lead to non-communicable diseases, covering 156 countries. It found that in 2020 global health hidden costs reached 8.1 trillion 2020 PPP dollars, some 70 percent of all hidden costs of agrifood systems. This shifted the diagnosis of agrifood system failure towards diet quality rather than output volume.

2024

FAO adopted a six-category agrifood systems typology in SOFA 2024

The 2024 State of Food and Agriculture classified national agrifood systems as protracted crisis, traditional, expanding, diversifying, formalizing or industrial, using agricultural value added per worker, supermarkets per capita, diet diversity and urbanization. The scheme showed that different systems face distinct challenges requiring targeted interventions. It extended an earlier academic typology by adding a protracted-crisis category drawn from the Global Report on Food Crises.

2023

FAO estimated global hidden costs of agrifood systems at USD 12.7 trillion

The 2023 State of Food and Agriculture produced a national-level assessment of agrifood system hidden costs for 154 countries, arriving at USD 12.7 trillion. It sat alongside earlier estimates of USD 12 trillion by FOLU and USD 19 trillion by Hendricks and colleagues, but was distinctive in its country-by-country coverage. The exercise moved true-cost accounting of food systems into mainstream international reporting.

2021

Marshall et al. developed the food systems typology later adapted by FAO

A 2021 study classified countries according to various aspects of their national food systems. It was designed as a complement to context-specific studies, and became the basis for FAO's later agrifood systems typology.

2021

FAO released the first definition of agrifood systems and their resilience

The State of Food and Agriculture 2021 – Making agrifood systems more resilient to shocks and stresses set out the first formal definition of agrifood systems and of agrifood systems' resilience. This gave governments and analysts a common conceptual frame covering primary production, distribution and household consumption, rather than treating agriculture alone. It underpinned subsequent measurement and policy work on food system shocks.