Authored by Takayuki Hagiwara, FAO Representative in India

Today, land degradation, desertification and drought are threatening agrifood systems globally. According to reports, in India, approximately 32 percent of the land is degraded, and 25 percent is undergoing desertification. Despite India’s vast agricultural land area and diverse ecosystems, land degradation and desertification severely impact its agrifood systems.

On World Environment Day 2024, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) highlights the need to adopt proactive, innovative and collaborative strategies to mitigate the challenges faced by agrifood systems while ensuring environmental sustainability and economic stability. FAO works closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW), and the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of India, to implement sustainable soil and water management solutions, along with agroecological practices across several states in India.

Land degradation and desertification in India

Land degradation directly affects soil health, water quality and availability, thereby impacting agricultural productivity. Factors such as deforestation, overgrazing, unsustainable agriculture practices and climate change aggravate these problems which in turn affect millions of farmers, especially small, marginalized, and women farmers.

In 1960s, with the launch of the Green Revolution, India’s food production transformed from being food deficient to food secure and surplus. However, the country is now facing second-generation problems, especially sustainability, nutrition, and the environment.

The Government of India is continuously engaged in addressing these challenges, with relevant departments involved in administering existing programmes and policies. However, there is a recognized need for more long-term directional reorientation of food, agriculture, and farm policies.

FAO believes that it is of utmost importance for the agriculture sector to fully integrate environmental concerns into its policies, plans and programmes for sustainability. This integration is essential to minimize the negative ecological impact of the sector and enhance its positive contributions.

FAO’s collaborative initiatives with the Government of India

FAO has been undertaking several initiatives in collaboration with the government to strengthen India’s agrifood systems and address issues related to land degradation and desertification. Currently, FAO’s Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded GEF-6 and GEF-7 projects are being implemented through the MoA&FW across eight states in India.  The MoEF&CC is the GEF operational focal point in India.

The GEF-6 Green-Ag project is being implemented in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. The project mainstreams biodiversity conservation, climate change, and sustainable land management objectives and practices into Indian agriculture to achieve multiple global environment benefits (GEBs). It supports harmonization between India’s agricultural and environmental sector priorities and investments so that the achievement of national and GEBs can be fully achieved without compromising India’s ability to strengthen rural livelihoods and meet its food and nutrition security requirements. The project also brings greater coherence between the Government’s policies, investments and institutions concerned with conservation and agricultural production at the landscape level.

FAO’s GEF-7 Food, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program (IP) aims to promote sustainable, integrated landscapes and efficient food value and supply chains at scale in rice- and wheat-based food systems in India. It adopts an innovative “whole food system” approach. At the core of this model, farmers in Punjab, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Odisha will be supported in managing their farming and livelihood systems in an integrated manner with principles of sustainability, resilience and agroecology, including locally adapted best practices capable of delivering multiple and linked environmental, social and health benefits.

To address the fragmentation in planning and monitoring climate action in the agriculture sector, FAO’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) project will enhance India’s capacity to develop sub-national climate finance investment programs and projects linked to adaptation and resilience priorities for the agriculture sector. GCF presents a significant opportunity to complement the actions and the climate finance resources of the Government of India in contributing to the achievements of its Nationally Determined Contributions.          

Way forward

FAO strongly believes that agroecological approaches must be embedded in collaboratively managed landscapes to maintain ecosystem services and secure global environmental values. These collaborative efforts will accelerate India’s efforts to evolve a new model of sustainable agriculture, transitioning towards healthy landscapes and ecosystems, providing for the needs of varied user groups, and resulting in multiple GEBs. FAO will support the government in designing key policies related to food systems and landscape management at the state and national levels.

By promoting a more participatory and comprehensive land use planning, India can address the drivers of environmental degradation that stem from limited governance and planning, coordination and collaboration, and non-inclusion of all relevant stakeholders.

Photo credit: FAO/Reva Moghe