It is often claimed that smallholder farmers produce 70 percent of the world’s food while using only 30 percent of land and water resources. Smallholders are defined as farmers cultivating less than two hectares of land. They indeed account for around 84 percent of all farms worldwide, but they use only about 12 percent of global cropland and, according to FAO (2025), provide only around 16 percent of global food energy, 12 percent of plant proteins and 9 percent of fats.

They are frequently confused with family farms. Yet family farms can also be large-scale operations. Another important point is that low-input smallholder agriculture, without fertilizers, modern crop varieties and other production systems such as irrigation and crop protection, cannot feed the world’s growing population.

According to the OECD, achieving the goal of 'Zero Hunger' while keeping agricultural emissions constant would require global crop productivity to increase by 24 percent over the next ten years. This represents twice the growth rate achieved during the last decade. If yields do not increase significantly, nearly 600 million additional hectares of agricultural land would be required by 2050—an area roughly twice the size of India. This would inevitably lead to massive deforestation and biodiversity loss.

To protect the climate and biodiversity, we must actually farm less land, which means producing significantly more on the land already in use. Rejecting highly productive agriculture as merely 'industrial harvesting' is therefore unrealistic given expected population growth—from 8.2 billion people today to 9.7 billion by 2050.

The role of smallholders is therefore ambivalent. While they remain crucial for local food security in many regions, they will hardly be able to deliver the required 24 percent productivity increase on their own. Solutions will only be possible if four key elements become available in regions dominated by smallholder agriculture. First, farmers need improved seeds based on hybrid breeding and modern biotechnology. High-yielding varieties have historically been the most important driver of higher and more stable yields. Second, greater access to fertilizers is necessary. In Africa, farmers apply only about 20 kg of nitrogen per hectare, compared with a global average of 146 kg per hectare. Third, irrigation must be expanded. Only 6 percent of African farmland is irrigated, a major reason for low yields. Fourth, farmers need better advisory services and digital tools. These provide recommendations for optimal fertilizer use, targeted pest control, weather forecasts and market prices—tools that help smallholders plan better and secure their harvests.

Finally, these improvements also allow underprivileged smallholder families to farm their land more efficiently. This means their children can go to school instead of working in the fields.