Sustainable agriculture is measured through several connected lenses: how land is used, how much greenhouse gas the agrifood system emits, how farms protect soil and water, and how producers reach markets. The latest available figures span global observations through 2024 and U.S. surveys and censuses from 2021–2023, so the measures below should be read by their stated geography and period.
Contents
- Global agricultural land and productivity
- Agrifood-system greenhouse-gas emissions
- Conservation tillage on major U.S. crops
- Cover crops and combined conservation practices
- Irrigation and farm water use
- Organic markets, local sales, and renewable energy
Global agricultural land and productivity
The Food and Agriculture Organization’s Land statistics 2001–2024. Global, regional and country trends reports that global agricultural land covered 4.6 billion hectares in 2024, more than one-third of the world’s total land area. Within that total, global cropland expanded by 92 million hectares between 2001 and 2024, while permanent meadows and pastures declined by 238 million hectares over the same period. These are global land-use changes, not a single-country farm trend. FAO, “Land statistics 2001–2024. Global, regional and country trends”
Land equipped for irrigation reached 351 million hectares in 2024, equal to about 22% of global cropland. At the same time, the area under organic agriculture reached 121 million hectares in 2024, more than five times its 2004 level. Organic area is therefore a substantial global measure, although it remains distinct from the broader total of agricultural land and from other sustainability practices.
The same FAO series shows pressure on land availability alongside higher output per unit of land. Global cropland per capita declined by about 20% between 2001 and 2024, while global land productivity increased by nearly 68%. Cropland expansion accounted for about 72% of global forest-land loss during that period. These figures describe changes together; they do not establish that one individual practice caused any of them.
Agrifood-system greenhouse-gas emissions
FAO’s Greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood systems. Global, regional and country trends, 2000–2022 estimates that global agrifood-system emissions reached 16.2 billion tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent in 2022. Agrifood systems represented an estimated 29.7% of total anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions in 2022, compared with 38% in 2000. In absolute terms, global agrifood-system emissions were 10% higher in 2022 than in 2000. FAO, “Greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood systems”
The emissions total includes more than on-farm production. In 2022, crop and livestock activities within the farm gate produced 7.8 billion tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent, or 48% of the agrifood-system total. Land-use change generated 3.1 billion tonnes, or 19%, while pre- and post-production activities generated 5.3 billion tonnes, or 33%. Pre- and post-production agrifood emissions were 52% higher in 2022 than in 2000.
Regional changes also differed. Compared with 2000, agrifood-system emissions in 2022 were 40% higher in Africa and 25% higher in Asia, while they were 6% lower in Europe. FAO reports global agrifood-system emissions intensity at 2.6 kilograms of carbon-dioxide equivalent per international dollar in 2022, a 39% decline from 2000. Emissions intensity and total emissions are different measures: a lower intensity can occur while total emissions still rise.
Conservation tillage on major U.S. crops
U.S. crop-specific Agricultural Resource Management Survey observations show how widely conservation tillage was used on selected crops, but these figures are not a census of every U.S. farm. The latest crop-specific observations reported conservation tillage on 68% of wheat acres in 2017, 76% of corn acres in 2021, 74% of soybean acres in 2018, and 43% of cotton acres. The cotton figure is reported without a single year in the cited summary. USDA ERS, “Adoption of conservation tillage has increased over the past two decades”
| Crop and measure | Survey observation | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Wheat: conservation tillage | 68% of acres | 2017 |
| Corn: conservation tillage | 76% of acres | 2021 |
| Soybeans: conservation tillage | 74% of acres | 2018 |
| Cotton: conservation tillage | 43% of acres | Latest observation reported |
The longer comparisons show increases in no-till use. No-till wheat rose from 20% of surveyed acres in 2004 to 45% in 2017. No-till corn rose from 16% in 2001 to 36% in 2021. In the cited U.S. crop surveys, mulch-till soybean acreage increased from 31% in 2012 to 35% in 2018. Mulch till accounted for about 50% of conservation-tillage acres on U.S. corn and more than 50% on cotton in the latest observations reported for 2018–2021.
Cover crops and combined conservation practices
The 2022 Census of Agriculture reported that U.S. cropland planted to cover crops increased 17%, from 15,390,674 acres in 2017 to 17,985,831 acres in 2022. Cover crops were planted on 4.7% of total U.S. cropland in 2022. In Texas, cover-crop acreage increased from 1,014,145 acres in 2017 to 1,550,789 acres in 2022, an increase of more than 50%. USDA ERS, “2022 Census of Agriculture: Cover crop use continues to be most common in eastern United States”
These census figures provide a broad acreage measure, while another USDA ERS analysis combines cited corn and cotton ARMS observations. In those observations, cover crops were present on 8.2% of the represented U.S. corn and cotton acres. Among cover-cropped acreage, 41.4% also used no-till and 33.0% also used reduced tillage. On comparable fields without cover crops, 28.2% used no-till and 31.7% used reduced tillage. USDA ERS, “Farmers adopting cover crops are more likely to adopt other conservation practices”
The combined corn-and-cotton comparison should not be read as a national all-crop estimate. It indicates the relationship observed in the cited crop-specific survey observations, with corn observations from 2016 and 2021 and cotton observations from 2015 and 2019. The national census acreage figures and the crop-specific practice comparisons measure different populations and should remain separate.
Irrigation and farm water use
The 2023 U.S. Irrigation and Water Management Survey covered 212,714 irrigating farms. Those farms irrigated 53.1 million acres and applied 81 million acre-feet of irrigation water in 2023. U.S. irrigation water use was 2.8% lower in 2023 than in 2018, while average application was 1.5 acre-feet per irrigated acre. USDA NASS, “2023 Irrigation and Water Management data now available”
The survey also reports that U.S. farmers irrigated 49.6 million acres of harvested cropland in the open in 2023. On-farm wells supplied 54% of irrigation water applied to U.S. acres in the open, and the average well depth was 241 feet. Farms had 12.6 million more irrigated acres using sprinkler systems than gravity irrigation in 2023.
The global and U.S. irrigation figures are not directly interchangeable. The global FAO series reports land equipped for irrigation in 2024, whereas the USDA survey reports U.S. farms, irrigated acreage, applied water, sources, and systems in 2023. They are presented descriptively rather than combined into a single estimate.
Organic markets, local sales, and renewable energy
USDA’s 2021 Organics data reported U.S. certified-organic product sales of $11.2 billion in 2021, up $1.28 billion, or 13%, from 2019. The United States had 17,445 certified organic farms in 2021, 5% more than in 2019. California certified-organic sales reached $3.55 billion in 2021, equal to 32% of the U.S. total. USDA NASS, “USDA releases 2021 Organics data”
Certified-organic farms sold $2.02 billion of products directly to retail markets, institutions, and local or regional food hubs in 2021. They sold another $310 million directly to consumers through channels including farmers markets, farm stands, CSA farms, and online markets. These sales figures describe certified-organic operations and their reported channels for 2021; they are not a total for every local-food transaction.
The 2022 Census of Agriculture reported 153,101 U.S. farms with renewable-energy-producing systems, 15% more than in 2017. Among U.S. farms with renewable-energy systems, 76% reported using solar panels in 2022. The same census counted 116,617 farms selling directly to consumers, with direct-to-consumer sales of $3.3 billion. USDA NASS, “USDA releases 2022 Census of Agriculture data”
Together, these market and energy measures show several dimensions of farm sustainability: certified production, direct routes to customers, and on-farm energy systems. The underlying sources use different years, populations, definitions, and units, so the global FAO series and U.S. USDA series should be interpreted as complementary statistics rather than one combined accounting system.