Claim: Just about 3% of Americans are into agriculture
Source: Eric Edem Agbana, MP Ketu North
Verdict: Overstated
Researched by Gifty Danso
The Member of Parliament for Ketu North, Eric Edem Agbana, speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana programme on July 3, 2025, claimed that about 3% of America’s population is into agriculture.
The statement was in response to a discussion about the recently launched 24-hour Plus programme, which the Ghana government has indicated will transform agriculture and exports.
“When you go to advanced economies like the USA, just about 3% of their population are in agriculture. But they produce enough, and the volumes are different.
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“But when you come to our part of the country, you have many people in agriculture and yet what we produce is not … because farmers are still depending on rainfall, there’s no all-year farming and no tech support for farming. And so last year (farmers) suffered because their farms got destroyed due to the drought,” he said. (between 1:57:27 – 1:58:11).
This fact-check report will verify the claim.
Fact-check
To verify the claim, GhanaFact relied on data from the US National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), an agency under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The National Agricultural Statistics Service conducts the Census of Agriculture, which collects data on farms and ranches and the people who operate them in every state in the US. This census is conducted once every five years.
The most recent data on agricultural statistics was released on February 13, 2024, and titled the 2022 Census of Agriculture.
In the US, agriculture remains a major source of food for its population of 340 million or 333 million people as of 2022.
According to the data, in 2022, 3.4 million producers operated 1.9 million farms covering 880.1 million acres, which generated food, fuel, and fiber for Americans and people around the world.
Calculating the percentage of 3.4 million agriculture producers from a population of 340 million people is 1% of the total population. This finding is corroborated by a food system factsheet by the University of Michigan.
The USDA’s Economic Research Service also released a report in 2023 that showed that agriculture and its related industries provide 10.4% of US employment. Direct on-farm employment accounted for about 2.6 million of these jobs, or 1.2% of U.S. employment (find here).
Verdict
Therefore, the claim by the MP is overstated.
When GhanaFact reached out to the MP with our findings, he acknowledged that he had relied on outdated data at the time of making the claim.
“I appreciate your diligence. My reference to the 3% figure was based on older data and a general estimation during the discussion. I acknowledge your finding that the current percentage is closer to 1%, and I appreciate the correction,” he said via WhatsApp messenger.
