Copyright licence

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Year of publication 2025

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Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

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Pages 148 p.

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Author FAO

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Publisher FAO ;

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Product type Book (series)

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Category Flagship

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ISBN 978-92-5-140142-2

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Series title The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA)

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Series number N.A.

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To cite or share https://doi.org/10.4060/cd7067en

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Synopsis (short abstract) The 2025 edition of The State of Food and Agriculture explores the theme “Addressing land degradation across landholding scales”. It examines the implications of human-induced land degradation for agricultural production, producers of all scales and vulnerable populations. The report presents new findings on how cropland degradation contributes to the yield gap worldwide against a backdrop of broader degradation processes on other land cover types and even land abandonment. Drawing on the latest data on global farm distribution, farm sizes and crop production, the report highlights how the scale at which land is managed shapes both the constraints and the opportunities for adopting sustainable land use and management practices. It also underscores the importance of policymaking that encompasses regulatory and incentive-based measures, tailored to the varied conditions and scales of land use, to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation.

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The following complementary information is available:

• Read the full digital report
• Read the In Brief
• Read the Policy brief: Tackling land degradation for sustainable agrifood systems
• Read the Policy brief: Global crop production patterns across landholding scales to inform policies
• Read the Interactive story: Addressing Land Degradationfor a Sustainable Future
• Watch the video: The State of Food and Agriculture 2025
• Read the press release: FAO report: 1.7 billion people experience lower crop yields due to land degradation
• Read The State of Food and Agriculture 2024

Read the background papers:

• SOFA 2025 supplementary data
• A global yield gap assessment to link land degradation to socioeconomic risks
• Policies that improved land conditions
• Revealing complementarities across farm scales in global food production
• A global update on the number of farms, farm size and farmland distribution

Updated 07/01/2026

Previous version

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Cite this content as:

https://doi.org/10.4060/cd7067en

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Language English

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Also available in:

• Arabic
• Chinese
• French
• Russian
• Spanish

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