Government support to agriculture increased by USD 121 billion - nearly 15% - between 2023 and 2025, reaching a record high. Much of this support was focused on short-term responses to successive crises rather than strengthening the sector's resilience to future risks, according to a new OECD report.
OECD Agricultural Policy Monitoring and Evaluation 2026 finds that total support to the sector averaged USD 885 billion per year in 2023-2025. Nearly half of support still takes the forms most likely to distort production and trade - altering market prices, subsidising inputs, or tying payments to output quantities. This rise in support occurred against a backdrop of more frequent and interconnected global shocks with increasing economic impact.
The increase reverses a decades-long decline in agricultural support relative to production. Across 56 countries covered, support to the sector rose from 17.6% to 19.1% of the value of agricultural production between 2023 -25. However, the ways in which governments provided support differed. In many emerging economies, support came mainly through policies that kept domestic agricultural prices above world prices, a form of support that insulates domestic markets in order to protect them from external shocks, while OECD countries relied more on direct government spending, including emergency disaster assistance.
"More support does not always mean better outcomes," OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said. "Distortive measures are raising costs for families and reducing efficiency. We need to invest in innovation and infrastructure to help farmers produce more with less, and we need to help farmers prepare for the next shock rather than simply compensating them for the last one. "
Consumers are bearing a significant share of the cost through higher food prices across the countries covered. Policies that kept domestic food prices above international levels resulted in an estimated net cost to consumers of USD 204 billion annually during 2023-25 as additional costs from higher food prices exceeded budgetary assistance to consumers.
Investment in research, innovation and infrastructure has not kept pace with the sector's needs against a backdrop of slowing agricultural productivity growth from 1.8% a year in 1991-2000 to 0.8% in 2014-2023. Public investment in agricultural knowledge and innovation systems accounted for just 0.5% of the sector's production value during 2023-25 compared with 0.9 % between 2000-02.
The report includes more than 150 country-specific recommendations and points to four key priorities for agricultural policy reform across countries:
- Target support more effectively by reducing reliance on measures that distort production, prices and trade, while expanding risk-management tools and outcome-oriented instruments.
- Reinforce systemic risk management policies to help the agricultural sector anticipate, adapt to and manage future shocks within stable policy frameworks and open international markets, minimising the need for ad-hoc responses to crises.
- Invest more in long-term resilience through research, innovation, knowledge, infrastructure and other public goods that support sustainable productivity growth and resilience.
- Better align policies with sustainability objectives by strengthening incentives, regulations, and monitoring and evaluation.
