The FAO's Status of the World's Soil Resources 2026 report finds soil degradation worsening worldwide, with South Asia, especially India, badly affected. 58% of regional assessments showed decline since 2015 and only about 10% improvement; 81% rated erosion management poor or very poor. In India, 30–37% of land is estimated degraded, about 83 million hectares suffer water erosion, and 4.8–5.3 billion tonnes of soil are lost yearly. Indian crops absorb only 30–45% of applied nitrogen against a global 59%. The report criticises subsidies favouring urea and urges coordinated land, farm, climate and biodiversity policies.