Nine out of ten of the world's 570 million farms are managed by families, making the family farm the predominant form of agriculture, announces the latest FAO report entitled 'State of Food and Agriculture 2014'.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva underscored in his introduction to the report that family farms produce about 80 percent of the world's food. Their prevalence and output means that they "are vital to the solution of the hunger problem" afflicting more than 800 million people,.

Family farms are also the custodians of about 75 percent of all agricultural resources in the world and are therefore key to improved ecological and resource sustainability. They are also amongst the most vulnerable to the effects of resource depletion and climate change.

The FAO report offers a comprehensive and new insights about family farms. Most family farms are small. Eighty-four percent of the world's farms are less than two hectares in size. However, farm sizes vary widely. Indeed, farms larger than 50 hectares - including many family farms - occupy two-thirds of the world's agricultural land.

In many high-income and upper-middle-income countries, large farms, responsible for most agricultural production, account for most farm land. But in most low- and lower-middle-income countries, small and medium-sized farms occupy most farm land and produce most of the food.

The full version of the State of Food and Agriculture 2014 report can be accessed on:

http://www.fao.org/publications/sofa/2014/en