Launch of “The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture 2025 (SOLAW 2025)", 1 December 2025: Register here.

Join us for the launch of “The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture 2025 (SOLAW 2025)” on Monday, 1 December 2025, at FAO Headquarters (Sheikh Zayed Centre) and online, from 12:30 to 14:00 (UTC+1).

The report will be released as a FAO flagship report for the first time. Adopting the theme “The potential to produce more and better”, it focuses on the hidden and untapped potential of land, soil and water resources with the aim of enhancing sustainable agricultural production. In particular, it explores opportunities for improving food production to meet the needs of a growing population and for strategizing how we can best manage the Earth’s most precious resources to achieve this goal.

The report presents the status of land, soil and water resources, and practical actions and solutions for their sustainable use and management, illustrated with examples. It also identifies the key enablers required to scale up these transformative solutions for lasting impact to build more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems.

Event objectives

The event, organized as a side event during the 179th Session of the FAO Council, aims to:

Provide an update on the status of land, soil and water resources, the challenges facing their sustainable use and the opportunities to boost food production in a sustainable manner;
Promote technical options and enabling solutions needed to increase food production and sustain land, soil and water resources; and
Discuss future collaborations with FAO Members and partners to scale up solutions presented in the SOLAW 2025 report.

Interpretation in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish will be available.

Agenda, 1 December 2025, 12:30-14:00 (UTC+1)

12:30-13:00	Moderator: Ms Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director-General, FAO Opening Remarks: Dr QU Dongyu, Director-General, FAO Ms Pieternel Boogaard, Managing Director, Office of Technical Delivery, IFAD Ms Yasmine Fouad, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) (video message)
13:00-13:05	Video animation on “The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture 2025”
13:05-13:20	Presentation of SOLAW 2025: main findings and recommendations: Mr Lifeng Li, Director, Land and Water Division, FAO
13:20-13:50	Perspectives by High-Level Representatives of FAO Members: Her Excellency Carla Barroso Carneiro, Ambassador, Permanent Representative to FAO, Brazil and Chairperson of the FAO Committee on Agriculture His Excellency Bassam Essam Rady Abdelhamid Rady, Ambassador, Permanent Representative to FAO, Egypt His Excellency Ngor Ndiaye, Ambassador, Permanent Representative to FAO, Senegal His Excellency Abat Fayzullaev, Ambassador, Permanent Representative to FAO, Uzbekistan His Excellency Zhang Lubiao, Ambassador, Permanent Representative to FAO, China Ms Annette Schneegans, Deputy Permanent Representative to FAO, European Union
13:50-13:55	Closing remarks: Mr Lifeng Li, Director, Land and Water Division, FAO