FAO Warns of Worsening Soil Degradation as Global Adoption of Sustainable Practices Lags
01 September 2026, Rome: Soil degradation is worsening across many parts of the world, while proven practices to protect and restore soil are not being adopted at the pace and scale needed, according to a major new global assessment released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The Status of the World’s Soil Resources 2026 report, together with new guidance developed by FAO and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), was presented during the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD (COP17). The publications bring together updated evidence on the condition of the world’s soils and practical recommendations to help countries avoid, reduce and reverse agricultural land and soil degradation.
The assessment finds that sustainable soil management practices remain insufficiently adopted worldwide. More than half of the regional and subregional assessments reviewed report low or very low levels of adoption. Since 2015, 58 percent have recorded a deteriorating trend, while only about 10 percent have reported improvements.
The report builds on the first global assessment published by FAO in 2015 through the Global Soil Partnership, with scientific guidance from the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils. It draws on scientific literature published between 2015 and 2025, alongside expertise from 75 countries.
Practices such as reduced tillage, integrated nutrient management, crop diversification, cover cropping, organic amendments and agroforestry can help address major soil threats while maintaining or improving agricultural productivity. The key challenge, however, is scaling these approaches rapidly enough to match the growing pressures on agricultural land.
“We have much better evidence today about the pressures facing the world’s soils — and about the practices that can protect and restore them. But this report makes clear that proven solutions are still not being adopted at the pace and scale required,” said FAO Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol. “The priority now is to give countries, farmers and other land users the knowledge, capacity and incentives they need to put those solutions into practice.”
Mounting Pressures on the World’s Soils
Soils are fundamental to global food security, producing more than 95 percent of the food consumed worldwide. They also play critical roles in water storage and filtration, climate regulation, biodiversity conservation and the livelihoods of millions of people.
Since 2015, the global population has increased by around 800 million, while the harvested area of major crops has expanded by approximately 80 million hectares. Urbanization, unsustainable farming practices, industrial activity, conflict and pollution are among the pressures contributing to land degradation and declining soil functions.
Soil erosion has emerged as the most severe and interconnected threat to soil health. Across the seven regions assessed, 81 percent of assessments rate erosion management as poor or very poor, while 65 percent report a deterioration since 2015.
Nutrient management presents different challenges across regions. While some areas are dealing with nutrient surpluses resulting from excessive inputs, others face nutrient depletion that limits agricultural productivity and threatens food security. The findings highlight the need for soil management strategies that are adapted to local conditions.
Five Priorities for Accelerating Soil Action
The report calls for coordinated and sustained action at local, national and international levels, centered on five priorities:
- Strengthening soil governance and legal frameworks.
- Expanding education, capacity development and knowledge exchange.
- Improving soil monitoring through harmonized data, indicators and assessment methods.
- Creating stronger incentives for farmers and land users to adopt sustainable soil management practices.
- Promoting inclusive, multidisciplinary and multistakeholder decision-making.
FAO emphasizes that healthy soils should be treated as strategic assets and that existing scientific knowledge must be translated into practical action on the ground.
New Guidance Puts Agricultural Land at the Centre
The second publication, Living Soils, Productive Lands, Resilient Landscapes: Guidance on Avoiding, Reducing and Reversing Agricultural Land and Soil Degradation, was jointly developed by FAO and UNCCD.
The guidance places agricultural land at the centre of efforts to achieve land degradation neutrality, addressing a longstanding gap in land management strategies. Agricultural landscapes account for the majority of human-induced land degradation but have often received insufficient attention in restoration efforts.
Rather than focusing solely on isolated restoration projects, the guidance promotes an integrated approach to managing productive landscapes. It prioritizes avoiding degradation wherever possible, reducing pressures where degradation is underway and restoring land and soils where damage has already occurred.
It also calls for agricultural land and soil considerations to be integrated more effectively into national development plans, land degradation neutrality targets, climate strategies, biodiversity frameworks and broader efforts to transform agrifood systems.
The findings reinforce the need for governments, farmers, researchers and other stakeholders to move from recognizing soil degradation as a growing global challenge to scaling proven solutions that can protect soil health, sustain agricultural productivity and strengthen the resilience of food systems.
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