Smart Net-Zero

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) | Source | Report |

FAO’s 2025 flagship report provides a global assessment of how human-induced land degradation—linked to deforestation, overgrazing, and unsustainable farming—erodes ecosystem functions and agrifood productivity across countries at all income levels. It estimates that around 1.7 billion people live in areas facing sizeable degradation-related crop yield losses, with middle-income countries most affected. A central message is that landholding scale shapes both constraints and solutions: 85% of the world’s ~570 million farms are <2 hectare (ha) yet cultivate 9% of farmland, while 0.1% (>1,000 ha) control nearly 50%—implying differentiated policy mixes for smallholders, medium farms, and large commercial operations. The report highlights that combining regulatory and incentive-based instruments, tailored to land conditions and farm structures, can best “avoid, reduce and reverse” degradation, supported by secure tenure, services, and inclusive financing.