2021-07-012021-07-012021https://hdl.handle.net/10883/21563pdfCIMMYT manages Intellectual Assets as International Public Goods. The user is free to download, print, store and share this work. In case you want to translate or create any other derivative work and share or distribute such translation/derivative work, please contact CIMMYT-Knowledge-Center@cgiar.org indicating the work you want to use and the kind of use you intend; CIMMYT will contact you with the suitable license for that purpose.AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES AND BIOTECHNOLOGYArticle10.1016/j.gfs.2021.100558Distribution of FarmsFarm Attributes2030 ProjectionDisaggregationStrategic planning for global agricultural R&D is hampered by a lack of comparable data on target populations. Surprisingly, even the global number of crop-specific farms are unavailable for any given year. We estimate the number of farms growing maize and wheat – the two most important cereals globally – at multiple geographic scales. For 2020, we estimate that a third and a fifth of global farms cultivated maize and wheat respectively. For 2030, we estimate the number of maize farms to increase by 5% (from 216 to 227 million) and wheat farms to decrease by 4% (from 135 to 130 million). Our estimation approach can be extended to other crops, and can contribute to improved agricultural investment programming.FARM NUMBERSFARMSFORECASTINGTARGETINGOpen Access