New FAO report on land and water resources paints an alarming picture

FAO. 2021. The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture – Systems at breaking point. Synthesis report2021. Rome. #82 p.

 

The report says if the world keeps to the current trajectory, producing the additional 50 percent more food needed could mean water withdrawals for agriculture increasing by up to 35 percent. That could create environmental disasters, increase competition for resources, and fuel new social challenges and conflicts.

Among the key challenges:

• Human-induced soil degradation affects 34 percent – 1 660 million hectares – of agricultural land.
• More than 95 percent of our food is produced on land, but there is little room for expanding the area of productive land.
• Urban areas occupy less than 0.5 percent of the Earth’s land surface, but the rapid growth of cities has significantly impacted land and water resources, polluting and encroaching on prime agricultural land that’s crucial for productivity and food security.
• Land use per capita declined by 20 percent between 2000 and 2017.
• Water scarcity jeopardizes global food security and sustainable development, threatening 3.2 billion people living in agricultural areas.
• Solutions on hand

With limited arable land and freshwater resources, a rapid scaling-up of technology and innovation is vital. People must strengthen the digital architecture needed to provide basic data, information, and science-based solutions for agriculture that make full use of digital technologies and are climate-proofing.

Land and water governance must be more inclusive and adaptive, to benefit millions of smallholder farmers, women, youth, and indigenous peoples. They are the most vulnerable to climatic and other socio-economic risks and face the greatest food insecurity. There needs to be more integrated planning at all levels. And investments in agriculture must be redirected towards social and environmental gains.

Sustainable soils, land, and water are the foundations for resilient agrifood systems. So the sustainable use of these resources is key to achieving climate mitigation and adaptation targets. For example, the wise use of soils alone can potentially sequester one-third of greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural land.