Why in the News?
The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) Report 2025, released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 3 November 2025, highlights the alarming global impact of human-induced land degradation.
About the SOFA Report:
- Goal: Aims to help governments design sustainable land management and food security policies.
- Publication: Released annually by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations as one of its flagship analytical reports.
- Focus (2025 Edition): Examines human-induced land degradation and its effects on agricultural productivity, poverty, and ecosystem stability.
- Analytical Scope: Integrates soil data, land use patterns, crop yields, and socioeconomic indicators to identify global vulnerability hotspots.
Key Global Findings (2025):
- Population Exposure: Around 1.7 billion people live in land-degraded regions with declining agricultural output.
- Deforestation Drivers: Agricultural expansion remains the cause of nearly 90% of global forest loss.
- Land Use Trends (2001–2023): Global agricultural land shrank by 78 mha (–2%); cropland increased by 78 mha, while pastures declined by 151 mha.
- Land Abandonment: About 3.6 mha of cropland is abandoned annually due to soil degradation.
- Restoration Potential: Reversing 10% of degraded cropland could feed 154 million people yearly; restoring abandoned land could feed 476 million.
- Vulnerability Hotspots: Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia face the highest overlap of degradation, poverty, and child malnutrition.
- Farm Structure Inequality: Small farms (<2 ha) constitute 85% of all farms but hold only 9% of farmland; large farms (>1,000 ha) control nearly 50% of it.
- Degradation Masking: Large farms offset degradation through high input use, while smallholders face disproportionate yield losses.
India-specific Insights:
- Overview: India among countries with highest yield losses due to human-driven land degradation.
- Regional Impact: Eastern and southern India worst affected owing to dense population and intensive cropping.
- Major Causes: Include soil erosion, nutrient depletion, deforestation, and over-irrigation.
- FAO Recommendations:
- Scale up sustainable land management, soil health, and watershed programs.
- Promote precision farming, agroforestry, and organic inputs for soil restoration.
- Strengthen smallholder resilience through credit, technology, and market access.
- Integrate land restoration with national missions like PM-KUSUM and PMKSY for long-term sustainability.
| [UPSC 2024] Consider the following statements:
1. India is a member of the International Grains Council. 2. The country needs to be a member of the International Grains Council for exporting or importing rice and wheat. Which of the statements given above is/are correct? Options: (a) 1 only* (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2 |
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