“All crops” can mean the plants farmers grow, the products harvested from them, or the statistics used to compare them. FAO’s crop classification groups plants primarily for agricultural statistics—not as a botanical family tree. To compare crops meaningfully, first specify whether you mean crop type, harvested area, production quantity, or yield, and identify the place and year.
What counts as a crop?
In the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ Indicative Crop Classification (ICC), a crop is the plant growing on an agricultural holding. A product classification concerns what that plant generates. FAO illustrates the distinction with mustard: mustard is an oilseed crop, while mustard seed is an oilseed product. The distinction matters when comparing crops with harvested or processed commodities. FAO’s ICC methods explain that the ICC refers to plants grown in the field, while product classifications refer to the products generated from them.
How are crops grouped?
FAO’s Indicative Crop Classification, version 1.1, is designed to support agricultural censuses and statistics. Its structure has four levels: nine top-level groups, 63 classes, 110 subclasses, and 27 orders. These groupings reflect agricultural use, so they should not be mistaken for a botanical taxonomy in which plants are grouped by biological relationship. FAO identifies ICC 1.1 as the current version on its Caliper classification page.
How should crop production be compared?
FAOSTAT reports area harvested, production quantity, and yield as separate measures. Each answers a different question:
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- Area harvested measures the area from which a crop is gathered. The same parcel can be counted more than once in a year if it produces multiple crops.
- Production quantity is harvested production. FAOSTAT’s definition includes on-holding losses and wastage, farm consumption, and quantities marketed.
- Yield relates production to area harvested. It is not the same as total production: a crop can have high output because it is grown over a large area, even if its yield is lower than another crop’s.
FAOSTAT’s crop production dataset covers 1961–2024 and was revised on 2025-12-15. Its metadata and definitions are available in the FAOSTAT Crops and livestock products dataset. Before comparing figures, check that the crop, measure, geographic area, and year match your question.
What do recent global crop figures show?
FAO reported that global harvested area for main primary crops reached 1.5 billion hectares in 2024, an increase of 197 million hectares from 2010. It also reported global cereal production of 3.1 billion tonnes in 2024, up 27 percent from 2010, and oil-crop production of 1.2 billion tonnes in 2024, up 50 percent from 2010. These are global aggregates, not figures for an individual country, farm, or crop. The figures are from FAO’s 2025 global agricultural production statistics.
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FAO says crop production statistics are primarily based on official statistics from member countries. Those national data can come from surveys, administrative records, or estimates based on expert observations, rather than identical direct measurements in every field. That context is useful when interpreting international comparisons.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Which crop measure should you use?
- Use crop identity or use to ask what is grown or how it is classified.
- Use harvested area to compare the land area from which crops are gathered, while accounting for multiple harvests on the same land in one year.
- Use production quantity to compare total harvested output.
- Use yield to compare output relative to harvested area.
For a fair comparison, name the crop or product, measure, location, and year. A global total can provide context, but it does not establish what grows well locally or what a particular farmer should plant.
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