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Pressures on land and water resources have been increasing to a critical point after a significant deterioration over the last decade. There is an urgent need to
design a future for sustainable agriculture and food production that is coherent and inclusive – one that protects the environment and is climate smart.
In this context The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is launching a landmark report
the State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW) 2021 at a high-level event on
9 December, 12:30-14:30 (CET).
The launch event will be webcast and can also be followed here.
Entitled “Systems at Breaking
Point”, the report provides evidence of the changing and alarming trends in resource use, since the first SOLAW was published in 2011.
Land, soil and water resources for food production form the core of the global agrifood system, and produce 98 percent of food consumed. Yet this essential resource
base is being lost. Urbanization will claim 30 million hectares of the most-fertile land around cities by 2030. Land degradation, soil erosion, increasing water scarcity and pollution, and climate change add to the array of challenges facing sustainable food
production.
Business as usual is clearly not an option to produce the 50 percent more food needed by 2050 to feed a global population of
9.7 billion, when the average productivity improvement over the
past decade averaged just 2.5 percent. Water withdrawals for agriculture, already using 70 percent of available freshwater resources, would double, creating environmental disasters, increasing competition for resources, and fuelling conflicts over land and
water.
The SOLAW 2021 report launch will include remarks by:
·
QU Dongyu, Director-General, FAO
· Ibrahim
Thiaw, Executive Director, UNCCD
· Gilbert
F. Houngbo, Chair UN-Water and President of IFAD
· Oscar
Maúrtua De Romaña, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peru\
· Gerardine
Mukeshimana, Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Rwanda
·
Julia Klöckner, Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, Germany
·
Mariam Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, UAE
·
Henk Ovink, Special Envoy International Water Affairs, the Netherlands
· Sulton
Rahimzoda, Chairman, Executive Committee of the International Fund for Saving Aral Sea (ECIFAS)
· Victor
Chude, Chair, African Soil Partnership
Please contact the FAO Newsroom for more details and interviews with our experts:
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