A new study shows the importance of small and medium farms in feeding the world.

As the world moves towards jumbo-sized megafarms, new findings suggest much smaller operations remain vital for crop and livestock diversity.

Small and medium farms produce more than half of the food globally, and produce the vast majority of food and nutrients in low income countries, according to a new project mapping global nutrient production from farms worldwide.

Estimates suggest that by 2050, there will need to be a 70 per cent increase in food availability to meet the demands of a growing population.

However, the increase in volume alone will not guarantee human wellbeing, as food systems will need to produce food of high nutritional value and crops, livestock and fish must be diverse to ensure food security.

The international team of researchers mapped how much calcium, folate, iron, protein, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and zinc is produced in farms of different sizes from 41 crops, 7 livestock products and 14 fish groups.

Globally, more than half (51-77 per cent) of the volume of major food groups (including cereals, livestock, fruits, pulses, roots and tubers and vegetable) are produced by small and medium farms, but there are regional differences.

For instance, large farms (over 50 hectares) dominate food production in North and South America, Australia and New Zealand and produce 75-100 per cent of all cereal, livestock and fruit in those regions.

Small farms (under 20 ha) produce 75 per cent of most food commodities in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and China.

Areas with small and medium farms had greater agricultural diversity than areas with large farms.

Independent of farm size, areas with more diversity of production were also shown to produce more nutrients.

“Small and medium farms produce more than half of the food globally, and are particularly important in low income countries, where they produce the vast majority of food and nutrients,” said Dr Mario Herrero, lead author from the CSIRO.

“Large farms, in contrast, are less diverse but their sheer scale ensures tradable surpluses of nutrients available to parts of the world that need them most.

“A sustainable food system that meets the needs of a growing population means we must focus on quality as well as quantity, and it is vital that we protect and support small and medium farms and more diverse agriculture so as to ensure sustainable and nutritional food production.”

The study is accessible here.