Publications

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The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture 2025

The potential to produce more and better

Land, soil and water resources are the foundations for agricultural production and global food security. Meeting the increasing demand for food will place additional pressure on resources that are already under severe strain: over 60 percent of human-induced land degradation occurs on agricultural lands (including cropland and pastureland), and agriculture accounts for more than 70 percent of global freshwater withdrawal. 

The 2025 edition of The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture underscores the urgent challenges of human-induced land degradation, water scarcity, and climate change, and their impact on agricultural productivity and ecosystems; it examines the hidden and untapped potential of land and water resources to enhance sustainable agricultural production by safeguarding these finite resources.   

The report further explores sustainable solutions and integrated approaches for sustainable land, soil and water use and management, illustrated with examples, and identifies the key enablers required to scale them up for lasting and sustained impact.

The choices we make today for the management of land, soil and water will determine how we meet current and future demands while protecting the world’s precious resources for generations to come.