Data on land and water have large gaps and are often of poor quality, especially in the less developed countries Information on land and freshwater is not only the foundation for national planning, but also provides the building blocks for regional and global systems needed for monitoring global food security and the health of our planet. FAO promotes development of monitoring systems, based on universally accepted indicators, that provide the information required for sound decision-making for the sustainable management of land and water resources, and also for understanding better processes and trends in their use and degradation. This enables more timely and effective prevention, control and restoration. Yet current national-level data on land and water have large gaps and are often of poor quality, especially in the less developed countries. Baseline information on land quality and the state of land degradation and erosion, and of the soil fertility status of cultivated lands, are limited, and information on current land use does not exist in many of these countries.
User requirements are different at international, national and local level.
At international level, improved global data sets are required for assessment of land and water resources potential and to provide information for perspective studies and global studies on the state of natural resources. At national and sub-national levels, information is mostly needed for planning and monitoring of land and water resources by national and provincial authorities. At local level, more data is needed for better management of resources, and for planning of the use of these resources by farmers, farmers groups, NGOs, district planners and specialists. Without adequate information on land and water, policies on sustainable agricultural development are unreliable, at global, national or sub-national level. Fundamental FAO exercises, such as World agriculture towards 2020, rely on a supply of basic data for analysis and projections.