FAO released The State of Food and Agriculture 2025 report

Context:
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has released The State of Food and Agriculture 2025 report, titled “Addressing Land Degradation Across Landholding Scales.” The report highlights how human-induced land degradation is undermining global food production and threatening environmental sustainability.

About the Report

• What it is:
  An annual flagship publication of the FAO that evaluates the performance and sustainability of global agricultural and food systems.
• Published by:
  Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Rome, 2025.
• Aim:
  To assess the impact of human-induced land degradation on agricultural productivity, livelihoods, and ecosystems, and to provide policy guidance for avoiding, reducing, and reversing degradation across different landholding scales.

Key Global Trends Identified

• Declining Cropland Productivity:
  Around 20% of global cropland shows reduced productivity due to soil erosion, nutrient depletion, and organic carbon loss, especially in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
• Severe Regional Yield Gaps:
  Yield gaps for ten major crops reach up to 70% below potential levels in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia due to poor soil fertility and limited access to inputs.
• Loss of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC):
  Declining SOC reduces water retention and soil biodiversity, increasing vulnerability to droughts and floods in semi-arid regions.
• Smallholder Disadvantage:
  Small farms (<2 hectares) make up 84% of all farms but control only 12% of farmland, making them highly vulnerable due to limited access to finance and technology.
• Large Farm Concentration:
  The top 1% of farms manage over 70% of agricultural land, often worsening degradation through monocropping and overuse of fertilizers, though they have better resources for restoration.
• Rising Land Abandonment:
  Between 1992 and 2015, more than 60 million hectares of cropland were abandoned—mainly in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South America—owing to declining yields and rural migration.
• Climate–Degradation Link:
  Degraded soils are now major emitters of greenhouse gases, reducing carbon sequestration and hindering progress toward SDG 15.3 (land degradation neutrality).

Analysis — Successes and Gaps

Successes

• Land Degradation Debt Model:
  A new machine learning-based model compares natural and current soil states, revealing a 30% tree cover loss, 20% biomass carbon loss, and a fourfold rise in soil erosion, offering the most accurate global estimate yet.
• Economic Cost Estimation:
  Global land degradation costs around USD 300 billion annually, with three-fourths stemming from land-use and cover changes—making land restoration a key investment priority.
• Socioeconomic Linkages:
  A 10% rise in degradation debt widens yield gaps by 2%, especially in Southeast Asia and Western Europe, indicating hidden soil fertility decline in intensively farmed areas.
• Multi-Scale Policy Tools:
  Using the GAEZ v5 global dataset, FAO links degradation data with farm-size structures to design scale-sensitive restoration policies.

Gaps / Failures

• Weak Monitoring Capacity:
  Low-income countries lack robust technical and satellite monitoring systems to track degradation effectively.
• Financing and Coordination Deficits:
  Despite pledges like USD 19 billion under the Great Green Wall, poor coordination and short project cycles lead to restoration fatigue.
• Limited Integration with Climate Goals:
  Restoration programs rarely align with SDG 13 (Climate Action) or SDG 8 (Decent Work) and often overlook gender-inclusive livelihood benefits.
• Neglect of Indigenous Systems:
  Proven indigenous land management practices, especially in East Africa and Latin America, remain underrepresented in formal restoration frameworks.

Major Challenges

• Land Inequality:
  The top 1% of farms own over 70% of farmland, restricting equitable access to restoration resources.
• Investment Gaps:
  Only 15% of agricultural investments target sustainable land management.
• Policy Fragmentation:
  Poor coordination between land, water, and energy policies hampers implementation.
• Data Deficiency:
  Incomplete data on soil carbon, erosion, and biodiversity slows SDG progress tracking.
• Climate Vulnerability:
  Increasing droughts and floods worsen land degradation, particularly in Africa and Asia.

FAO Recommendations

1. Scale-Specific Policies:
   Design tailored interventions — incentivize smallholders with payments for ecosystem services and regulate large farms for sustainable input use.
2. Boost Land Restoration Investment:
   Strengthen public–private partnerships in carbon farming and regenerative agriculture, following successful models in Latin America and Africa.
3. Empower Local Communities:
   Mainstream community-led and gender-inclusive restoration in national programs.
4. Improve Global Monitoring:
   Establish a Global Land Degradation Data Hub integrating remote sensing with ground-based data for real-time assessment.
5. Align with SDGs:
   Link national policies with SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land) for better coherence.

Conclusion

The FAO’s State of Food and Agriculture 2025 warns that one-fifth of the world’s cropland is degraded, posing a severe threat to global food security. Smallholders and developing nations are most affected. The report urges science-driven, equity-focused, and scale-sensitive restoration strategies to close yield gaps, rebuild soil health, and safeguard global food systems.
Without urgent action, the world risks irreversible damage to both agricultural productivity and climate goals by 2030.