Who Produces the World's Food (2024)

There is no single food commodity that is uniformly consumed by people around the world. Though the cuisine and taste greatly differ in different parts of the world, with several companies owning patents on specific plants, many of the basic food ingredients remain the same. Going by the demand-supply relationship, we can consider wheat, rice, potatoes, maize (corn), and sugarcane as basic food items and the top five commodities produced in the world when measured in tons.

Let’s look at the countries producing these commodities in bulk.

China

China has a huge agricultural sector (farming, forestry, animal husbandry, and fisheries) that contributes to 10% of its gross domestic product (GDP). China is a spectacular combination of an industrial and agricultural economy. On one hand, it is called the “world’s factory” for the massive manufacturing done in the country, and on the other hand, it is the largest agricultural economy.

The contribution of agriculture to GDP has largely remained the same at 10% over the last decade, though it has substantially decreased from what it was two to three decades back. The agricultural sector employs about one-third of the country’s total employed population. China is the world’s largest producer of wheat, rice, and potatoes. It is the second-largest producer of maize and the third-largest producer of sugarcane.

United States

The United States is the world’s largest and most powerful economy with a GDP of $17 trillion. The agricultural sector in the US is highly mechanized, which has resulted in it being among the top producers despite the fact that just 1% of the total employed population is employed by agriculture.

And while agriculture contributes only about one percent to the GDP, the US is the world’s largest producer of maize (corn), the third-largest producer of wheat, fifth-largest producer of potatoes, tenth-largest producer of sugarcane, and twelfth-largest producer of rice.

India

Although the importance of agriculture for India’s economy has substantially decreased over the years, it remains an important sector, contributing around 18% to the country’s GDP and providing employment to approximately 45% of its population. While the share of the sector towards the GDP has reduced from more than 30% in 1980’s, the overall modernization, productivity and resources have increased.

According to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the nation’s agricultural machinery and services sectors attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) equity inflows of $365.79 million (April 2000-September 2014). India is the second-largest producer of sugarcane, wheat, rice, and maize and the sixth-largest producer of potatoes.

Russia

Russia’s economy has undergone a transformation since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, becoming a market-based open economy from an earlier centrally planned economy.The agricultural sector, which employs 10% of the population, accounts for 4% of the $2.05 trillion economy. It uses just about 13% of Russia’s land area because of the country's climatic and geographical limitations.

Out of the total agricultural products produced, about 40% is from crop farming, and the remaining 60% from livestock, including wool, meat, and dairy farming. Russia is the third-largest producer of potatoes, fourth-largest wheat producer, and twelfth-largest producer of maize.

Brazil

Brazil is among the most prominent South American economies. Brazil’s economy is primarily service-sector oriented, and agriculture contributes just about 6% to its GDP of $2.24 trillion. The agricultural sector employs 15% of the workforce and uses 30% of the land area. Brazil is the largest sugarcane producer, the third-largest producer of maize, and the ninth-largest producer of rice.

The Bottom Line

The analysis of the production of the top five commodities reflects that there has been no change in the position of these commodities over the last five years. Rice, wheat, and potatoes have stayed at the third, fourth, and fifth slots with a largely constant production level over the years. Even production of maize has been more or less constant but for the last year when its production took a leap, increasing from 877 million tons to 1 billion tons. Sugarcane, the world’s most-produced commodity has steadily witnessed a rise in output to reach 1.9 billion tons, which is way ahead of any of the other commodities.

Some other countries specialize in one or two of the top commodities. For example, Indonesia is the third-largest producer of rice, Canada is the largest lentil producer, and Nigeria is the top producer of cassava. But on the whole, China, the US, India, and Russia contribute amajor chunk to the world’s food basket.

The graph, rankings, andanalysis are based on the latest data from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations Statistics Division (FAOSTAT).