UNFSS Science Days Side Event: Reforming agricultural policies to support food systems transformation

According to the OECD’s recently released 2021 Agricultural Monitoring and Evaluation Report, governments of some 54 countries provide transfers to agriculture totaling about $720 billion annually. The report, presented at the side event by Jonathan Brooks of OECD, notes that “Overall, most current support policies are not serving the wider needs of food systems.” This substantial spending could offer a way to finance food systems transformation, including reducing the carbon footprint of food systems while gaining resilience, improving food security and nutritional outcomes, and enhancing poverty reduction and equity. The proposition for restructuring or repurposing agricultural support has been put forward as a game-changing solution for the UNFSS. Rob Vos presented recent IFPRI research on the potential for repurposing agricultural subsidies to finance both mitigation of greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions and enhancement of agricultural productivity. Simply removing distorting agricultural support is not sufficient to reduce GhG emissions, according to the study. But emission-reducing agricultural productivity growth could be boosted by shifting current spending on agriculture toward more appropriate R&D and compensating farmers for any losses they incur from subsidy removal and for the upfront costs of adopting more sustainable technologies and production practices.