Land, soil and water are essential resources to securing global food security now and the future. This statement, issued by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), was contained in its latest edition of ‘The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture’ (SOLAW 2025) report.

The flagship report warned that feeding a projected 10 billion people by 2050 will require bold and smarter choices in how the world manages its land, soil and water.

Themed: “The potential to produce more and better,” the report presents strategies for producing more – and better – food for a growing population while ensuring the responsible and resilient management of land, soil, and water.

It also highlighted the significant, often overlooked, potential of land and water resources to support sustainable increases in food production.

Last year, an estimated 673 million people experienced hunger, and many regions continue to grapple with severe and recurrent food emergencies. These pressures will intensify as the global population approaches 9.7 billion by 2050, requiring agriculture to produce 50 per cent more food, feed and fibre than in 2012, alongside 25 per cent more freshwater.

According to FAO data, the core challenge is producing more with less, as more than 60 per cent of human-induced land degradation occurs on agricultural land.

It noted that over the past 60 years, global agricultural production tripled with only an eight per cent increase in agricultural land – but at high environmental and social costs.

The report showed that expanding agricultural area is no longer viable. For example, clearing forests or converting fragile ecosystems would undermine critical biodiversity and ecosystem functions that agriculture itself depends on.

The study further indicates that the world has the potential to feed up to 10.3 billion people by 2085, when the global population is expected to peak. However, achieving this depends on how food is produced — and at what environmental, social, and economic costs.

“Future productivity gains must, therefore, come from smarter, not simply more, production. This means closing yield gaps (the difference between currently obtained and potentially attainable yield); diversifying into resilient crop varieties; and adopting locally-tailored, resource-efficient practices suited to specific land, soil, and water conditions.

“Rainfed agriculture — relied on by millions of smallholder farmers — offers key opportunities. Productivity can rise significantly by scaling up conservation agriculture, drought-tolerant crops, and drought-resilient practices such as soil moisture conservation, crop diversification, and organic composting. Such practices can strengthen food security for millions of smallholder farmers while enhancing soil health and on-farm biodiversity,” the report stated.

It added that integrated systems such as agroforestry, rotational grazing and forage improvement, as well as rice–fish farming, offer additional pathways to sustainable intensification.

The potential for substantial productivity gains is particularly strong in developing regions, it stated, adding that in sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, rainfed crop yields currently reach just 24 per cent of their attainable potential under appropriate management.

There is no single pathway and no one-size-fits-all solution, the report stresses. “Sustainable solutions require coherent policies, strong governance, accessible data and technology, innovation, risk management, and sustainable financing and investment, as well as strengthened capacity across institutions and communities.

“With the climate crisis reshaping where and how food can be grown, “the choices we make today for the management of land and water resources will determine how we meet current and future demands while protecting the world for generations to come,” FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, writes in the report’s Foreword.

Looking ahead, FAO said in 2026, the three Rio Conventions — the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) — will hold major conferences.

“SOLAW 2025 provides solutions that cut across all three areas, providing a shared foundation for integrated, sustainable land, soil, and water management to build resilient agrifood systems.”