The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture 2025 – The potential to produce more and better. Issued on 2025 by FAO

In order to meet the demands of a growing global population, agriculture needs to produce about 50 percent more food, feed and fibre by 2050 compared with the volumes it generated in 2012, according to estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Achieving such objectives will place additional pressure on the world's already overstretched water, land and soil resources. In an increasing number of regions, food security and agrifood systems are at risk from unsustainable natural resource management practices, urban expansion, higher demand for food, water, energy and biomaterials, and persisting social and gender inequalities in access to and governance of resources. FAO estimates that more than 1.6 billion hectares (ha) of land, corresponding to more than 10 percent of the world’s land area, have been degraded by unsustainable land-use and management practices. More than 60 percent of this degradation occurs on agricultural lands (including cropland and pastureland), creating unprecedented pressure on the world’s agrifood systems. Globally, urban areas more than doubled in size in just two decades, growing from 33 million hectares (Mha) in 1992 to 71 Mha in 2015. This expansion consumed 24 Mha of some of the most fertile croplands, 3.3 Mha of forestlands and 4.6 Mha of shrubland.