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Organic farming is on the rise across the globe. A total of 69.8 million hectares were farmed organically at the end of 2017, representing a growth of almost 11.7 million hectares or 20% compared to the previous year. These are the latest figures of the report “The World of Organic Agriculture” published by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and IFOAM – Organics International. The study collects data on 181 countries with organic farming activities. Australia has the largest area farmed organically with 35.6 million hectares, followed by Argentina with 3.4 million hectares and China with 3 million hectares. Due to the large organic area in Australia, almost half of the global organic agricultural land is in Oceania (35.9 million hectares), followed by Europe with 21% and Latin America with 11.5%. Currently, only 1.4% of the world’s agricultural land is organic, but many countries have far higher shares. The three countries with the largest shares are Liechtenstein (37.9%), Samoa (37.6%) and Austria (24%). In Estonia, 20.5% of the farmland is organic and in Sweden and São Tomé and Príncipe, the figures are 18.8% and 18% respectively. In fourteen countries, 10% or more of all agricultural land was under organic management in 2017. [+] more ...