This year’s theme of Desertification and Drought Day, Restore the land. Unlock the opportunities shines a light on how restoring land can boost food and water security, support climate action and build economic resilience.
Land is the foundation of our agrifood systems, with 95 percent of the world’s food produced on agricultural land. However, FAO estimates that 1 660 million ha of land – corresponding to more than 10 percent of the world’s land area – is degraded due to the impact of human activities. Over 60 percent of this degradation occurs on agricultural lands, comprising cropland and pastureland, directly impacting agrifood systems and food security.
Land degradation and drought are closely connected, creating a harmful cycle that undermines ecosystems, agricultural productivity, food security and livelihoods. Over the past 30 years, 5 percent of the global agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) has been lost each year due to disaster events. Among these, drought stands out as the most significant, accounting for nearly half of all agricultural losses. From 2012 to 2018, undernourished people in drought sensitive countries increased by 45.6 percent, highlighting the severe impact of drought on agriculture and its cascading effects on food security and livelihoods.
The sustainable management of land, soil and water resources is essential to increase food production, conserve ecosystems, improve land, soil and water quality, and strengthen the resilience of rural communities to extreme weather events.
The restoration of degraded agricultural land needs urgent political leadership, massive investments and concerted actions. The decision made last year by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Parties, “Avoiding, reducing and reversing land and soil degradation of agricultural lands” calls for promoting sustainable land use to prevent and reverse the degradation of agricultural lands and soils in the context of climate change and environmental degradation.
Investing in drought risk prevention and management, as well as in agricultural land restoration is our chance to reverse these threats and create new possibilities for more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems.
The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) provides a unique opportunity to transform food, fibre and feed production systems to address the rising food demand and eradicate poverty, hunger and malnutrition, through effective and innovative landscapes and seascapes management.
Solutions in a nutshell
In our efforts to combat land degradation, desertification and drought, enhance ecosystem resilience and productivity, FAO is working closely with Members and partners to implement a number of practical solutions. These include:
- maintaining healthy soils by regulating its water-holding capacity and increasing soil organic carbon stocks, such as through the RECSOIL: Recarbonization of Global Agricultural Soils initiative developed by FAO;
- managing land, soil and water resources in a sustainable and integrated way, using harmonized and integrated systems of data, information, science and technologies;
- empowering national governments to pilot policies and strategies to address the root causes behind land degradation;
- supporting and enhancing monitoring and reporting of land degradation; protecting biodiversity, including in soils , while avoiding the spreading of invasive species;
- promoting sustainable use of multiple local opportunity crops, drought resilient and adapted crops, native and adapted plants for food, feed and other uses in restoration programmes;
- promoting tenure security and adopting good governance of land and water to encourage communities to invest sustainably in land restoration;
- implementing Integrated Land Use Planning (ILUP) to support the restoration of agricultural land through a consultative and inclusive process;
- empowering national institutions to lead and coordinate drought preparedness and drought management efforts by aligning policies and investments, fostering cross-sectoral collaboration and developing integrated plans that reflect national development priorities;
- developing national water roadmaps or country led water dialogues which help strengthen the intersectoral coordination on sustainable water resources management to achieve all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and
- promoting the adoption and implementation of multiple guidelines, guides and codes of conduct, including the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management, the International Code of Conduct for the sustainable use and management of fertilizers, together with the many guidelines and principles on restoration.
Source: FAO
