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ROME, Italy—Approximately 1.7 billion people live in areas where crop yields are falling because of human-induced land degradation—a pervasive and silent crisis that is undermining agricultural productivity and threatening ecosystem health worldwide.
The alarming figure comes from the latest The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), released last week during an event at its headquarters in Rome.
The report delivers a clear message: land degradation is not just an environmental issue—it impacts agricultural productivity, rural livelihoods and food security.
SOFA 2025 provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of how human-driven land degradation impacts crop yields, identifies global vulnerability hotspots, and examines where these losses intersect with poverty, hunger and other forms of malnutrition.
Drawing on the most recent global data on farm distribution, sizes and crop production, the report outlines actionable opportunities for integrated sustainable land-use and management practices, alongside tailored policies. These measures aim to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation while improving food production and farmers livelihood.
“To seize these opportunities, we must act decisively. Sustainable land management requires enabling environments that support long-term investment, innovation and stewardship,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu wrote in the report’s Foreword.
The impact of land-degradation
FAO defines land degradation as a long-term decline in the land’s ability to deliver essential ecosystem functions and services.
Land degradation rarely stems from a single cause; it typically results from a combination of factors. These include natural drivers, such as soil erosion and salinization, and human-induced pressures, which are increasingly dominant.
Activities like deforestation, overgrazing and unsustainable cropping and irrigation practices are now among the leading contributors. Given its profound impact on agricultural productivity, the report focuses specifically on human-induced land degradation.
(To be continued) FAO News
