Reports and Indices

World Soil Resources Report 2026

September 1 , 2026 13 hrs 0 min 20 0

The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)’s Status of the World’s Soil Resources 2026 report shows that soil degradation is worsening globally, with South Asia, especially India, facing severe degradation.
More than half of the regional assessments reported low or very low adoption of sustainable soil practices; 58% showed worsening conditions since 2015, while only about 10% showed improvement.
Soil erosion was identified as the biggest problem, with 81% of assessments rating erosion management as poor or very poor and 65% reporting deterioration.
In India, about 30–37% of land is estimated to be degraded, while around 83 million hectares are affected by water erosion; India loses about 4.8–5.3 billion tonnes of soil annually.
India, Bangladesh and Pakistan have unsustainably high nitrogen surpluses, and Indian crops absorb only 30–45% of applied nitrogen, compared with the global average of 59%.
The report highlights misdirected agricultural subsidies, especially those favouring nitrogenous urea, and calls for better coordination of policies on agriculture, land, climate and biodiversity.