The 2025 edition of The State of Food and Agriculture explores the theme “Addressing land degradation across landholding scales”. It examines the implications of human-induced land degradation for agricultural production, producers of all scales and vulnerable populations. The report presents new findings on how cropland degradation contributes to the yield gap worldwide against a backdrop of broader degradation processes on other land cover types and even land abandonment. Drawing on the latest data on global farm distribution, farm sizes and crop production, the report highlights how the scale at which land is managed shapes both the constraints and the opportunities for adopting sustainable land use and management practices. It also underscores the importance of policymaking that encompasses regulatory and incentive-based measures, tailored to the varied conditions and scales of land use, to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation.
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