Combat desertification COP17: Experts question why nutrition and land are treated as separate disciplines globally as report reveals soil degradation to be worsening
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released its "Status of the World's Soil Resources 2026" assessment on the sidelines of the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
The report found that 58% of regional soil assessments showed deteriorating conditions since 2015, with only about 10% showing improvement; soil erosion was rated "poor" or "very poor" in 81% of assessments.
India was identified as accounting for the largest share of land degradation in South Asia, affecting roughly 30-37% of its land area, with about 83 million hectares affected by water erosion.
Experts at the conference questioned why nutrition and land management are treated as separate policy disciplines, with different ministries and expert communities handling each, and called for dedicated research to bridge the gap.
Agricultural subsidy structures favouring nitrogen fertilisers were flagged as a root cause of soil degradation across South Asia.
UNCCD — The Third Rio Convention
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is one of three legally binding conventions to emerge from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, alongside the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It is the only legally binding international framework specifically addressing desertification, land degradation, and drought.
Key Details
- Adopted 17 June 1994; entered into force 26 December 1996.
- India signed in October 1994 and ratified in December 1996.
- 197 Parties currently, including 196 countries and the European Union.
- The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the convention's supreme decision-making body, meeting periodically to review implementation; COP17 (2026) is hosted by Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar, themed "Restoring Land. Restoring Hope," and is being held alongside the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP 2026).
The FAO soil report was deliberately timed for release at COP17 to inform the convention's periodic stocktake of global land degradation, the core mandate the UNCCD was created to address.
Desertification, Land Degradation, and Drought — Distinguishing the Terms
UNCCD distinguishes "desertification" (land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas resulting from climatic variations and human activities) from the broader term "land degradation" (reduction in the biological or economic productivity of land from any cause, including erosion, salinisation, and nutrient depletion, not limited to drylands). "Drought" is treated as a distinct, often triggering, phenomenon.
Key Details
- Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) is the UNCCD's flagship target (adopted 2015, aligned with SDG target 15.3): ensuring the amount and quality of land resources remain stable or improve.
- India's national LDN target: restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 (raised from an earlier commitment of 21 million hectares), under the global Bonn Challenge framework hosted by IUCN and Germany.
- As of India's latest reporting, roughly 21.76 million hectares have been brought under restoration, over 80% of the 26-million-hectare target.
- The Bonn Challenge itself is a global pledge to restore 350 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2030.
The FAO report's finding of worsening soil erosion (81% of assessments rated "poor" or "very poor") is precisely the productivity decline that Land Degradation Neutrality targets are designed to reverse, and India's 30-37% land-area degradation share in South Asia is why its Bonn Challenge restoration commitment carries outsized regional weight.
Soil Health and Nutrient Management Policy in India
Soil erosion and nutrient depletion directly threaten India's food security and nutrition outcomes, the disconnect flagged by experts at COP17. India's principal domestic instrument for soil health monitoring is the Soil Health Card scheme, while nutrient-use imbalance (particularly nitrogen-fertiliser overuse) is addressed through fertiliser subsidy policy.
Key Details
- Soil Health Card scheme (launched 2015) provides farmers with soil nutrient status and fertiliser-use recommendations to correct imbalanced application.
- Nitrogen fertiliser use efficiency in India is estimated at only 30-45%, compared to a global average of about 59%, reflecting over-application driven by subsidised urea prices relative to phosphatic and potassic fertilisers.
- India loses an estimated 8 million tonnes of plant nutrients annually through degradation processes, and annual soil loss from water erosion is estimated at 4.8-5.3 billion tonnes.
- The Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme (2010) was intended to rebalance fertiliser use across nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, but urea remains outside its ambit and continues to be more heavily subsidised, sustaining the imbalance.
The report's core critique — that nutrition and land are siloed as separate disciplines — maps onto a well-documented Indian policy gap, where fertiliser subsidy design (aimed at farm input affordability) is not integrated with soil-health and nutrition outcomes, contributing to the erosion and degradation trends the report documents.
- FAO "Status of the World's Soil Resources 2026" released: August 27, on the sidelines of UNCCD COP17
- COP17 venue and dates: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 17-28 August 2026
- 95% of global food production depends on soil
- 58% of regional soil assessments show deterioration since 2015; ~10% show improvement
- Soil erosion rated "poor" or "very poor" in 81% of assessments globally
- India: 30-37% of land area degraded (largest share in South Asia); 83 million hectares affected by water erosion; annual soil loss 4.8-5.3 billion tonnes
- India's nitrogen fertiliser use efficiency: 30-45% (global average: 59%)
- India's Bonn Challenge/LDN target: restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 (~21.76 million hectares restored so far)
- UNCCD: adopted 1994, in force 1996, 197 Parties, one of three Rio Conventions (with UNFCCC and CBD)