Restoring land is critical for India’s economy and food security: Osama Faqeeha, UNCCD’s COP16 advisor

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

security of the nation. The agricultural sector, which supports over 50% of India’s workforce, is especially vulnerable to land degradation.

Soil erosion, loss of arable land, and declining soil fertility reduce crop yields. Studies reveal that land degradation and desertification reduce agricultural productivity by 2-5% annually in severely affected areas, exacerbating poverty in rural regions where agriculture is the primary source of income.

The sixteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 2 to 13 December 2024. In an interaction with ET Online, Osama Faqeeha, Deputy Minister for Environment, Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Saudi Arabia and Advisor to the COP16 Presidency, elaborates on the urgency and scale of the land degradation crisis in India, the economic impact of land degradation on agriculture, and COP16’s vision for land restoration and sustainable development.

Edited excerpts:

ET: Can you share your perspective on the urgency and scale of the land degradation crisis, especially in countries like India where agriculture is central to livelihoods and the economy?
Osama Faqeeha (OF): The scale of land degradation is staggering and demands urgent global attention. According to UNCCD data, we lose land equivalent to four football fields every second, amounting to 100 million hectares annually.

These include forests, grasslands, agriculture lands and other types of lands that provide valuable and diverse ecosystem services supporting biodiversity and human communities. This crisis affects approximately one-third of humanity, and its economic implications are profound –