Organic Crop Yield Per An Acre Of Farmland

- By Ken & Barbara Kern

The statistical information listed In the tables below represent a crop-by-crop average yield of 47 foods (in pounds per acre), according to two different sources. If we calculate the average yield for all of these crops we find it to be 10,642 pounds per one acre of land. Therefore, the yield for 1/4 acre is 1/4 of that, or 2660 pounds.

If you grew equal amounts of all these crops (except rice -- I excluded rice because it is so unusually high-yielding, and it takes lots of water to grow rice) on 1/4 acre of land, how many pounds of food per day does that average out to be, in the course of one year, if you had one harvest season per year?

2660 lbs./year = 7.3 pounds of food per day for one person.
365 days/year

Do the crop yield figures (shown below) seem a little bit too high for you? Do you really think that you could get, for example, 19,400 pounds of carrots out of only one acre of land? One acre of land is 43,560 square feet, according to Random House Dictionary. If that was a square piece of land, that would be 208.7 feet long on each side of that square. (The "square root" of 43,560 is 208.7) If you produced 19,400 pounds of carrots out of 43,560 square feet of land, that would be less than 1/2 pound per one square foot of land:

19,400 lbs. per one acre = .445 pounds per ONE square foot of land.
43,560 square feet per one acre

If you went into a supermarket to the bulk produce section, and weighted some carrots on the scale, you would see that a half pound of carrots is a small handful of carrots. Can you visualize this half-pound of carrots in a square piece of ground that is one foot long on each side? It appears to be reasonable to me!

You could do similar calculations for the other crop yield figures below, but you would find similar results: the numbers are quite realistic. Check it out for yourself, though. Notice too, that CARROTS are one of the higher yielding crops. Therefore, MOST of the other figures are even MORE reasonable than carrots!

Organic Crop Yield Per An Acre
#	Crop / Vegetable	Pound
1	SPINACH	11,000
2	CARROT	19,400
3	ONION	19,800
4	SQUASH-WINTER	17,000
5	POTATO-IRISH	15,200
6	CELERY	32,000
7	CABBAGE	13,700
8	TOMATO	11,000
9	BEAN-SNAP	4,600
10	LETTUCE	9,100
11	TURNIP	12,000
12	BROCCOLI	7,300
13	CAULIFLOWER	10,800
14	BELL PEPPER	6,900
15	POTATO-SWEET	6,000
16	CORN	6,200
17	SQUASH-SUMMER	9,700
18	BEET	10,800
19	CANTALOUPE	9,800
20	PEA	2,200
21	ASPARAGUS	4,400
22	CUCUMBER	8,400
23	RADISH	12,000
24	WATERMELON	10,300
25	LIMA BEAN	1,400
TOTAL:		271,000
AVERAGE:		10,840

1992 CROP YIELD FIGURES California Statistical Abstract, Dept. of Finance, 1992
CROP'S NAME		BEARING ACRES	TOTAL TONS	POUNDS / ACRE
1	ALMONDS, SHELLED	409,000	235,000	1,150
2	PECANS, IN SHELL	2,600	1,250	962
3	PISTACHIOS	51,600	38,500	1,490
4	WALNUTS	181,000	250,000	2,760
5	APPLES	31,500	400,050	25,400
6	APRICOTS	16,000	90,000	11,260
7	AVOCADOS	74,100	136,000	3,680
8	CHERRIES, SWEET	10,800	36,000	6,660
9	DATES	5,100	24,000	9,420
10	FIGS	16,000	37,000	4,620
11	KIWI FRUIT	7,500	29,500	7,860
12	NECTARINES	25,500	205,000	16,080
13	OLIVES	30,100	65,000	4,320
14	PEACHES, ALL	52,100	820,000	31,400
15	PEARS, ALL	22,500	317,000	28,200
16	PEARS, BARTLETT	19,000	300,000	31,600
17	PLUMS	41,900	218,000	10,400
18	GRAPES	660,000	4,875,000	14,770
19	OATS	35	39	2,240
20	BARLEY	160	226	2,833
21	WINTER WHEAT	410	984	4,800
22	DURUM WHEAT	32	101	6,300
TOTALS:		1,656,937	8,078,650	228,205
AVERAGES:		75,315	367,211	10,373


*GRAND TOTAL (POUNDS / ACRE from both tables):*	499,205
*OVERALL AVERAGE (POUNDS / ACRE from both tables):*	10,621