The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW 2025), warning that land, soil, and water resources are finite, increasingly degraded, and central to future global food security.

Key Highlights from the Report

• Global Food Security Challenge: 
  • Hunger Burden: 673 million people faced hunger in 2024, with many regions stuck in recurrent food emergencies.
  • Rising Demand: By 2050, with the population projected to reach 9.7 billion, agriculture must produce 50% more food and 25% more freshwater compared to 2012 levels.
• Global Resource Stress:
  • Over 1.6 billion ha of land (10% of global land) is degraded due to unsustainable practices, and 60% of this is agricultural land.
  • Agriculture uses 72% of global freshwater withdrawals, intensifying water scarcity and groundwater depletion.
• Past Production Gains: 
  • From 1964–2023, agricultural production increased mainly through intensification, not land expansion (only 8% expansion).
  • Irrigated land doubled; though only 23% of cropland is irrigated, it produces 48% of global crop value.
  • Unsustainable Practices: Intensive fertilizer use and monocropping contributed to soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

Solutions for Better Production

• Enhancing Rainfed Agriculture: By using conservation agriculture, drought-tolerant crops, soil moisture conservation, diversification, and organic composting.
• Increasing Land Productivity: Land productivity can be enhanced by narrowing the yield gap, selecting resilient crop varieties suited to local agro-climatic conditions, and adopting sustainable land and soil management practices.
• Urban and peri-urban farming (hydroponics, vertical farming) helps reduce pressure on land and water while enhancing food supply.
• Integrating Production Systems: Integrated approaches such as agroforestry, rotational grazing, forage improvement, and rice–fish farming can strengthen ecological resilience while diversifying farm outputs.
• Strengthening Institutional Capacity: Capacity development through modern agricultural extension tools, such as FAO’s Farmer Field Schools (FFS), helps farmers adopt sustainable practices.

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About the State of Land and Water Resources (SOLAW) Report

• Published by: It is the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s first flagship report assessing the global condition of land and water resources.
• Previous Editions: 2011, 2021
• Purpose: SOLAW seeks to raise awareness about the status of global and regional land and water resources and presents the FAO’s recommendations for policy formulation.
• Key Focus Areas:
• • Resource Status: Evaluates the quantity and quality of land and water resources worldwide.
  • Rate of Use: Analyses how rapidly these resources are being exploited and the sustainability of current practices.
  • Socio-economic Drivers: Examines how factors such as food security, poverty, and climate change influence resource degradation and management needs.

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