Oecd Food And Agricultural Reviews Innovation Productivity And Sustainability In Food And Agriculture Main Findings From Country Reviews And Policy Lessons

Markets that function well within a stable regulatory and policy environment are key to improving the productivity and sustainability of the food and agriculture sector. This report contains the main findings and policy lessons gained from a series of wide-ranging country reviews on how government policies can improve sectoral productivity and sustainability through their impact on innovation, structural change, natural resource use, and climate change. Improving the policy environment would require rolling back those policies that distort markets the most and retain farmers in uncompetitive and low-income activities, harm the environment, stifle innovation, slow structural and generational change, and weaken resilience.

Markets that function well within a stable regulatory and policy environment are key to improving the productivity and sustainability of the food and agriculture sector. This report contains the main findings and policy lessons gained from a series of wide-ranging country reviews on how government policies can improve sectoral productivity and sustainability through their impact on innovation, structural change, natural resource use, and climate change. Improving the policy environment would require rolling back those policies that distort markets the most and retain farmers in uncompetitive and low-income activities, harm the environment, stifle innovation, slow structural and generational change, and weaken resilience. Agriculture policy should focus instead on measures that facilitate the uptake of technologies and practices that use resources more efficiently and sustainably, and which contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Of equal importance are: a more collaborative approach, more effective governance systems, the development of long-term strategies, strengthened linkages between national and international actors, and comprehensive and coherent evaluation procedures. Public funding of food and agricultural research is also crucial, and private efforts need to be strengthened, including through public-private partnerships. Finally, improving overall policy coherence would contribute to building trust, and to increasing policy effectiveness at each step of the food and agriculture chain.

The Canadian food and agriculture sector is for the most part competitive and export-oriented: although challenges and opportunities vary significantly between regions, primary agriculture benefits from an abundance of natural resources and faces limited environmental constraints.

Agricultural innovation in Sweden has sought to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of the agri-food sector by ensuring a high level of environmental and animal welfare standards, while raising the productivity and financial viability of farms.

The US food and agriculture sector is innovative, competitive and export-oriented. Maintaining high productivity growth in light of changes in national and global demand, while improving the sustainable use of resources, will nonetheless require further innovation.

The Dutch food, agriculture and horticulture sector is innovative and export oriented, with high value-added along the food chain and significant world export shares for many products.

Estonian agriculture has undergone significant growth and structural change since the 1990s in a policy and regulatory environment that has been mostly supportive of investment. The implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy has contributed to the modernisation of the country's agriculture.

In Japan, agriculture has been treated differently from other parts of the national economy.