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Current status of organic farming world-wide

Helga Willer[1]

Introduction

It is generally acknowledged that organic agriculture can contribute to socio-economic and ecologically sustainable development. The market for organic products is growing and offers producers and exporters in the South opportunities to improve their incomes and living conditions. But what role does organic farming play in the poorer countries? Some current data are presented in this paper, based on the global survey on organic farming carried out 2007/2008 by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements IFOAM and Foundation Ecology & Agriculture (SOEL).[2]

Current statistics on organic land area

Organic agriculture is developing rapidly and is now practiced in more than 130 countries of the world. Its share of agricultural land and farms continues to grow in many countries. According to the latest survey on global organic farming, 30.4 million hectares of agricultural land are managed organically at the end of 2006. This constitutes a growth of 1.8 million hectares compared to 2005. Additionally, according to this survey, there are more than thirty million hectares of wild collection areas.

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Figure 1: Distribution of the organic land by continent 2006: Source: Willer 2008

Oceania has the largest share of organic agricultural land, followed by Europe and Latin America. Currently, the country with the largest organic area is Australia (more than 12 million hectares). The proportion of organically compared to conventionally managed land, however, is highest in Oceania and in Europe. In the European Union (EU 27) 4% of the land is under organic management. Most producers are in Latin America.

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Figure 2: The ten countries with most organic land 2006

Source: Willer 2008

Table 1: Organic agricultural land and farms by continent 2006

|Continent |Organic agricultural |Share of total |Organic wild |Organic |

| |land area |agricultural |collection area |farms |

| |(ha) |area (%) |(Million ha) | |

|Africa |417'059 |0.1 |8.3 |175'266 |

|Asia |3'090'924 |0.2 |8.0 |97'020 |

|Europe |7'389'085 |1.6 |9.6 |203'523 |

|Latin America |4'915'643 |0.7 |7.4 |223'277 |

|North America |2'224'755 |0.6 |0.4 |12'064 |

|Oceania |12'380'796 |2.7 |- |7'594 |

|Total |30'418'261 |0.7 |33.8 |718'744 |

Source: Willer 2008

Global demand for organic products remains robust, with sales increasing by over five billion US Dollars a year. Organic Monitor estimates international sales to have reached 38.6 billion US Dollars in 2006, double that of 2000, when sales were at 18 billion US Dollars. Consumer demand for organic products is concentrated in North America and Europe; these two regions comprise 97% of global revenues. Asia, Latin America and Australasia are important producers and exporters of organic foods. (Sahota 2008).

Current status of organic farming in developing and transition countries

The analysis of the global organic data for the countries on the list of recipients of Official Development Assistance (DAC List[3]) shows, that more than one quarter of the world’s organic agricultural land (8.8 million hectares) is in countries on this list.

Most of this land is Latin America followed by Asia and Africa. The leading countries in terms of organic land are China, Argentina and Uruguay. The highest percentages of organic land are in several Pacific Island States, East Timor, Uruguay and Argentina – in these countries the shares of organic land of all agricultural land are comparable to those in Europe. These countries are, however, clearly exceptions. Out of the countries on the DAC list covered by the survey only few have a higher share of organic land than one percent of the agricultural area. Thus, compared to the developed countries, organic farming is lagging behind.

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Figure 3: Main land use in organic agriculture by continent 2006

Source: Willer 2008

Even though not for all countries on the DAC list land use details were available, the statistics show that the shares of grassland (more than half of the organic land in these countries) and those of permanent crops are, compared to Europe and North America, relatively high. Arable land is of minor importance. This can be attributed to the fact that export plays a high role – either of meat products (mainly from Latin America) or of permanent crops. The most important permanent crops are export crops such as coffee, olives, cocoa and sugarcane.

Local markets are still underdeveloped, even though in most countries of Latin America, Asia and also some African countries they are growing.

Conclusions

As shown in Europe a strong organic movement, a strong market and government support has a positive influence on the development of the organic sector. Many countries, particularly in Latin America (Brazil, Bolivia), are now launching action plans for organic farming, one motive being to increase domestic food sovereignty. Another form of government support is the implementation of government regulations in order to ease export of organic products. In Latin America 15 countries have an organic legislation, in Asia seven countries on the DAC list and in Africa three countries (Huber et al. 2008). More countries are in the process of drafting laws. Some countries are now on the Third Country list according to EU regulation of organic farming (Argentina, Costa Rica, India).

From the data gained through the global organic survey it is clear that in many countries of the South organic farming plays an increasingly important role. In the light of booming organic markets it can be assumed that the market/export potential for organic products continues to be high. However, to assure supply with organic products not only in industrialised countries but also in countries in the south, more effort should be put in developing local markets.

In order to be able to draw clear conclusions on the potential organic farming has for food security including supplying domestic markets more data than available so far are needed, covering for instance information such as domestic supply with organic food, export volumes and information on yields. There is a clear need for governments to provide better data. With more and more countries implementing organic farming regulations data collection activities should be eased in the future, and governments should support such activities.

Reference

Huber, Beate, Otto Schmid und Lukas Kilcher (2008): Standards and Regulations. In: The World of Organic Agriculture. Statistics and Emerging Trends 2008. IFOAM, Bonn and FiBL, Frick, pp. 59-70

Sahota, Amarjit (2008) The Global Market for Organic Food and Drink. In: The World of Organic Agriculture. Statistics and Emerging Trends 2008. IFOAM, Bonn and FiBL, Frick, pp. 53-57

Willer, Helga (2008): Organic Agriculture Worldwide: Current Statistics. In: The World of Organic Agriculture. Statistics and Emerging Trends 2008. IFOAM, Bonn and FiBL, Frick; pp. 23-46

Willer, Helga, Minou Yussefi-Menzler und Neil Sorensen (Eds. 2008): The World of Organic Agriculture. Statistics and Emerging Trends 2008. IFOAM, Bonn and FiBL, Frick. Hardcover edition: Earthscan, London

The 2008 edition of ‘The World of Organic Agriculture’ is published by IFOAM and FiBL and, as a novelty, in a hardback edition, by Earthscan.

The IFOAM/FiBL paperback edition may be ordered via the IFOAM and FiBL bookshops at shop. and shop.bookstore/

The Earthscan edition is available via

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[1] Helga Willer, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Ackerstrasse, CH-5070 Frick, , anic-.

[2] The work is supported by NürnbergMesse, the organisers of BioFach, the World Organic Trade Fair. Since 2008 it is also supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO, Berne, and the International Trade Centre ITC, Geneva.

[3] For this paper the countries listed on the List of Recipients of Official Development Assistance (ODA) of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) were analysed. The list is available at dataoecd/23/34/37954893.pdf

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