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The year 1997 was characterised by a consolidation of policy reforms in OECD countries, the continued implementation of policy adjustments necessitated by the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, and reflections on future policy goals and options. Food safety and consumer issues dominated the agricultural policy agenda in many countries. A meeting of Agricultural Ministers in March 1998 set the direction for further reform of agricultural policies. Support remained stable in 1997 but policy measures are addressing an ever-widening range of objectives, creating a need for improving policy targeting, monitoring and evaluation and better co-ordination among government agencies and institutions.

This report is in two parts. Volume 1: Monitoring and Evaluation provides a description and evaluation of overall agricultural policy developments in OECD countries. The detailed background tables, which include data from 1986-88 to 1997, and information on policy developments, are provided in Volume 2: Measurement of Support and Background Information.

Over the last decade the trend has leaned towards lower support for agriculture in OECD countries, fewer trade distortions and greater market orientation. However, low commodity prices and pressure on farm incomes influenced agricultural policies in 1998, and policy makers resorted to additional measures of support and protection that were not always consistent with longer term reform goals.

This annual publication provides the most comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of agricultural policies available for OECD countries. It examines the changing level and composition of support to agriculture, evaluating agricultural policy developments against a common set of OECD Ministerial principles for reform. The main part of the publication, Monitoring and Evaluation, assesses agricultural support and policy developments, while the Background Information gives detailed information on levels of support and policy developments in each Member country.

The rise in support to agriculture, which first became apparent in 1998, continued in 1999, reaching levels not seen since the mid 1980s. Low world commodity prices, and the resulting pressure they put on farm incomes, led many OECD countries to introduce new measures or to provide additional support to farmers. These events demonstrate clearly that greater efforts are needed to advance the process of agricultural policy reform and trade liberalisation.

Agricultural Policies in OECD Countries: Monitoring and Evaluation 2000 provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date estimates of the level and composition of support to agriculture, as well as descriptions and assessments of the agricultural and related trade policies of the 29 countries of the OECD.

This annual publication provides the most comprehensive description and assessment of agricultural and related policy developments in OECD countries. It presents data on the level and composition of support and protection to agriculture, and evaluates the extent to which countries are reforming their agricultural policies. A special section is devoted to agricultural trade and the implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture.

Support to agricultural producers in OECD countries decreased in 2001 for the second consecutive year, but remained above the record low attained in 1997. Although there has been some progress in agricultural policy reform, it has been slow, variable and insufficient.

This book is a unique source of up-to-date estimates of agricultural support in OECD member countries. It provides a comprehensive description and assessment of policy developments in these countries and contains a special section on the agricultural support in two non-member countries – Russia and the Ukraine. 

OECD Agricultural Policies was previously published annually under the title Agricultural Policies in OECD Countries: Monitoring and Evaluation. Starting with this edition, OECD Agricultural Policies: At a Glance will be published every other year, alternating with OECD Agricultural Policies: Monitoring and Evaluation, a more detailed examination of the topic.

This report is a unique source of up-to-date estimates of support to agriculture. It provides an overview of agricultural support in the OECD area, complemented by individual chapters on agricultural policy developments in all OECD countries. This edition finds that overall support to farmers in OECD countries has been declining. It shows that the decline has largely been due to a narrowing of the gap between domestic and world agricultural commodity prices. The report also focuses on the impacts of the current financial and economic crisis on agriculture, and the policy responses. Agriculture is expected to fare better than many other sectors. It has a relatively smaller financial exposure, demand is less sensitive to income falls, and the existing set of support policies in many countries can dampen the impact of the crisis. Governments are facing tighter fiscal conditions, which is likely to prompt further review of support policies, including for agriculture.

The 2008 United States Farm Act, the Health Check of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy and the new Growing Forward policy framework in Canada are also reviewed in the report. A special feature in the report focuses on agri-environmental policies in OECD countries.

This report is a unique source of up-to date estimates of support to agriculture. It provides an overview of agricultural support in the OECD areas, complemented by individual chapters on the development of support in all OECD countries. Agricultural Policies in OECD Countries: At a Glance is published every other year, alternating with the longer report, Agricultural Policies in OECD Countries: Monitoring and Evaluation. This book includes StatLinks, URLs under graphs and tables linking Excel® files with the underlying data.

This 2010 edition finds that in 2009, support to farmers in OECD countries accounted for 22% of the farmers’ gross receipts (%PSE). This was slightly up from 21% in 2008, and marks a return to the level shown in 2007. This is the first increase in support levels in five years, after a steady decline that began in 2004. Higher commodity prices in 2007 and 2008 were behind falls in the measured support for those years, but in 2009 these prices returned to the same level as in 2007. 

Despite a long-term reduction in both the level of support and the share of the most distorting forms of support, the latter still dominates in the majority of OECD countries. Some countries have taken clear steps towards reducing the level of support and/or implementing more decoupled support, while others have lagged behind. In some countries, support is becoming increasingly conditional on famers following specified production practices as part of their government’s pursuit of broader policy objectives. 

This tenth edition of Agricultural Policies in Transition Economies shows that the transition has brought about a notable overall reduction in the policy distortions in the agricultural sectors of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, and Slovenia.  Data provided in the report show the gradual convergence of their domestic agricultural prices with world prices. In most Central and Eastern European countries, support to producers remains lower than in OECD and EU countries and well below pre-transition levels. These and other key agricultural policy issues are analysed in this report, supported by the relevant statistical data.

Statistical data are also available on line at www.OECD-iLibrary.org .

This review, undertaken in close co-operation with the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, assesses the performance of Vietnamese agriculture over the last two decades, evaluates Vietnamese agricultural policy reforms, discusses the policy framework for sustainable investment in agriculture and provides recommendations to address key challenges in the future.

The OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews provide comprehensive assessments, according to different angles, of countries’ agricultural policies, including OECD estimates of the level of support; major reform efforts and their potential impacts; or conduciveness of the broad policy framework to generating the innovation that will improve agricultural productivity sustainably.

For the first time, the Monitoring and Evaluation report of agricultural policies covers OECD member countries (including the new members who joined during 2010 – Chile, Estonia, Israel and Slovenia) and selected key emerging economies: Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa and Ukraine.

This edition shows that, after an increase in 2009, producer support in the OECD area declined in 2010, confirming the downward trend in support to farmers. The trend in emerging economies shows some increase in the level of support, although it stays well below the OECD average.

This report is a unique source of up-to-date estimates of support to agriculture and is complemented by individual chapters on agricultural policy developments in all countries covered in the report.

This edition of Agricultural Policy Monitoring and Evaluation covers OECD member countries and is a unique source of up-to-date estimates of support to agriculture in the OECD area. It is complemented by country profiles on agricultural policy developments in OECD countries.

This book finds that while overall producer support in the OECD area continues to slowly decline, differences in support levels across OECD countries remains large. A number of new country-level frameworks for agricultural policies will become operational in 2014, and multilateral trade negotiations may have future bearing on agricultural trade. In the longer term, an increased focus on innovation will be needed to improve productivity and sustainability.