UN agency warns smarter land, water use needed to feed 10B by 2050

• 'These pressures will intensify as the global population approaches 9.7 billion by 2050, requiring agriculture to produce 50 percent more food, feed and fibre than in 2012, alongside 25 percent more freshwater,' report warns

GENEVA

A new report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Monday warned that feeding a projected 10 billion people by 2050 will require "bold and smarter choices in how the world manages its land, soil and water."

The latest State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW 2025) stressed that these resources are finite and must be safeguarded to secure global food security "now and in the decades ahead."

The report said that in 2024 an estimated 673 million people experienced hunger, while many regions continue to face severe and recurrent food emergencies.

"These pressures will intensify as the global population approaches 9.7 billion by 2050, requiring agriculture to produce 50 percent more food, feed and fibre than in 2012, alongside 25 percent more freshwater," it said.

But meeting rising demand will be increasingly challenging. Over the past 60 years, global agricultural production "tripled" with only an 8% rise in agricultural land, but at "high environmental and social costs."

More than 60% of human-induced land degradation occurs on agricultural land, it said, stressing that expanding farmland by clearing forests or fragile ecosystems is "no longer viable."

The FAO outlined science-based solutions to use land, soil and water more sustainably, saying the world has the potential to feed up to 10.3 billion people by 2085 but achieving this depends on how food is produced and at what environmental and social cost.

Future productivity gains must come from “smarter, not simply more, production. This means closing yield gaps (the difference between currently obtained and potentially attainable yield); diversifying into resilient crop varieties; and adopting locally-tailored, resource-efficient practices suited to specific land, soil, and water conditions," the agency said.

"There is no single pathway and no one-size-fits-all solution," the report said, calling for coherent policies, strong governance, innovation and sustainable financing. With the climate crisis reshaping global agriculture, "the choices we make today for the management of land and water resources will determine how we meet current and future demands while protecting the world for generations to come," said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.