Two separate new reports have highlighted why healthy soil is so important - and the negative impact that soil degradation is having on food systems, health, climate and economies.
The Status of the World’s Soil Resources 2026 report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns that soil degradation is worsening in many parts of the world, while proven practices to protect and restore soils are still not being adopted at the pace and scale required.
The report identifies a lack of sustainable soil management across seven key threats: soil erosion, loss of soil organic carbon, nutrient mismanagement (including acidification), loss of soil biodiversity, salt accumulation, soil pollution, and soil sealing due to urban expansion. It found that soil erosion continues to be the biggest threat and is also the most interconnected threat, stripping away topsoil, reducing rooting depth, depleting nutrients and carbon, limiting water infiltration, and increasing runoff - thereby heightening the risk of floods and droughts.
"Practices such as deforestation, frequent or deep tillage, insufficient or no soil cover, poor irrigation and drainage management, inappropriate use of agrochemicals, overgrazing and traffic on wet soils remove protective vegetation and destabilise soil structure. The negative effects of these unsustainable management practices are exacerbated by climate change, conflicts and other human activities that compete for land use," the report said.
Sustainable practices to protect soil, such as reduced tillage, integrated nutrient management, crop diversification, cover crops, organic amendments and agroforestry can mitigate soil threats while sustaining or improving agricultural productivity, but are not being adopted at a fast enough rate, it says.
“We have much better evidence today about the pressures facing the world’s soils, and about the practices that protect and restore them," said FAO deputy director general Beth Bechdol. "The priority now is to give countries, farmers, and other land users the knowledge, capacity and incentives that they need to put these solutions into practice."
The FAO report sets out five priorities which it says will help accelerate progress in adoption of practices to protect soil.
These are:
- Strengthening soil governance and legal frameworks
- Promoting education and knowledge exchange
- Improving soil monitoring through harmonised data, indicators and assessment methods
- Strengthening incentives for adoption of sustainable soil management
- Fostering inclusive, multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder decision-making
At the same time, a white paper from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in collaboration with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification: The Hidden Economic Power of Healthy Soils, argues that healthy soils protect the long-term value of not only agriculture but also businesses and investment portfolios.
The report says that soil dependency is real and largely invisible: "If the soil in your supply chains is not healthy, your business is not healthy," it says arguing that while healthy soils create value degraded soils create risk, affecting productivity, resilience and long-term business performance.
Soil plays a central role in regulating key biogeochemical cycles – carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and water – through its interactions with plants, microorganisms and the atmosphere, it notes. And any disruptions to these processes can cascade through food systems and economies.
Today, up to 40% of the world’s land is already degraded, costing the global economy an estimated $878 billion annually, it says: "The consequences reach well beyond the farm, through rising production costs, volatile supplies and prices, and growing exposure to droughts, floods, and other such shocks such as war among nations.”
The report asserts that businesses have a role to play in shaping soil outcomes. “Mining, manufacturing and urban development may disturb soil, contribute to contamination or permanently reduce soil functions through sealing and land conversion. Emerging concerns such as PFAS, microplastics and other pollutants further illustrate how soils can become both sinks for and pathways of environmental contamination,” the report says.
However, the report notes that businesses can also become agents for restoration. “By aligning procurement, investment and innovation with long-term stewardship, they can help rebuild soil function while strengthening supply security and long-term value creation,” it says.
Highlighting businesses interdependency on soils, the report cites work carried out by luxury goods business LVMH, which found that 58.4% of its raw material volumes depend on soil quality or formation and nutrient cycling. These soil dependencies span wines and spirits ingredients, wood and paper, textiles, leather and cosmetic ingredients. “This assessment by LVMH helped the business translate an invisible environmental dependency into information relevant to procurement, supplier engagement and long-term business strategy,” the report states.
The report sets out five actions which it says show how businesses and investors can strengthen soil stewardship through their decisions, supply chains and partnerships. These five actions are: making dependencies visible by identifying where operations depend on healthy soils; establishing and tracking a set of practical soil and business indicators that guide decisions; aligning incentives with stewardship; developing finance models that recognise the long-term value of healthy soils; and collaborating across sectors.
Further reading:
-
Soil pollution by toxic metals threatens agriculture and health
- European Parliament votes for law to improve soil health
- Regenerative Agriculture: The route to adoption
- SCItalk video: Sustainable innovations for regenerative agriculture
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