Land and water management is a key element of CSA.  More productive and more resilient agriculture requires a major shift in the way land and water are managed to ensure that these resources are used more efficiently. Sustainable Land and Water Management (SLM) includes a broad range of practices and methods including the restoration of peatlands and degraded lands. SLM also increases the amount of carbon sequestered in the soil, enhancing the soils nutrients and its water retention capacity. 

Securing land tenure enables farmers to benefit from the value added on the land and to encourage them to adopt a long-term perspective. The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, recently adopted by the Committee on World Food Security, play an important role. They promote secure tenure rights and equitable access to land, fisheries and forests as a means of eradicating hunger and poverty, supporting sustainable development and enhancing the environment.

Other issues to be considered include cultural, environmental and political factors such as land rights. Secure land rights provide the enabling environment for the investment in sustainable land management including the restoration of peatlands and degraded lands and the management of Grasslands, Rangelands and Forage Crops  and water and irrigation management - a key element of CSA.  

Land cover and soil information including soil mapping are a critical input for predictive models related to environmental protection, climate change, biodiversity, land degradation and regional and national food security early warning systems, natural resources monitoring and management. FAO has been assisting countries in the Asia-Pacific region to develop an enriched high resolution/detailed land cover (LC) database and soil information systems which provide base information for natural resource use planning and management.