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.

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

Food systems around the world face a triple challenge: providing food security and nutrition for a growing global population; supporting livelihoods for those working along the food supply chain; and contributing to environmental sustainability. Better policies hold tremendous promise for making progress in these domains.

This annual report monitors and evaluates agricultural policies in 54 countries, including the 38 OECD countries, the five non‐OECD EU Member States, and 11 emerging economies. It finds that despite some modest declines in recent years, support to agriculture has remained close to recent historical highs. While changes in support have been limited, agricultural policies have been both reactive and proactive, boosting the sector’s capacity to respond to current challenges while aiming to ensure that food systems are fit for purpose as future conditions evolve. This year’s report focuses on policies fostering sustainable productivity growth in agriculture. Governments are applying a large variety of approaches to improve productivity while preserving natural resources and reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. The report notes, however, that clearly defined targets related to sustainable productivity growth and measurable indicators of progress are important to ensure that policies achieve their stated objectives. The report also notes that making more effective use of producer support to promote innovation and environmental sustainability on the farm, and refocusing overall support towards targeted R&D, can better leverage public spending to deliver public goods and sustainable productivity growth. In line with the 2022 OECD Agriculture Ministerial Declaration, the report identifies a seven-point policy agenda for making agriculture more sustainable, productive and resilient, and for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of agricultural support and markets.

Policies for the Future of Farming and Food in the European Union applies the OECD Productivity, Sustainability and Resilience (PSR) analytical framework along with the latest data from the OECD Agri-Environmental Indicators to benchmark the sustainable productivity performance of the EU’s agricultural sector and to identify the main challenges ahead.

This review of taxation in agriculture in 35 OECD countries and emerging economies outlines the diversity of tax provisions affecting agriculture, provides an overview of cross-country differences in tax policy, and confirms the widespread use of tax concessions specifically for agriculture, although their importance and modalities differ across tax areas and countries.

Norway is performing unevenly across its four agricultural policy objectives. While Norway enjoys a high level of food security and is meeting its aim of maintaining agricultural production across the country, both environmental performance and the efficient creation of value added along the food chain are compromised by support policies linked to production levels.