Policy Coherence and Food Security: The Effects of OECD Countries' Agricultural Policies on Developing Countries

POLICY COHERENCE AND FOOD SECURITY: THE EFFECTS OF OECD COUNTRIES’ AGRICULTURAL POLICIES

There have been important changes to agricultural policies in many OECD countries over the past decade, with reforms in the past five years facilitated by high international food prices. As a consequence, the international spill-over effects of support and protection in OECD countries have diminished. Remaining distortions could be eliminated with few immediate consequences for farmers’ incomes, so now would be a good time to replace them with more efficient alternatives, including social safety nets and tools to help farmers manage risk. This would lock in the benefits of reform and simultaneously address charges of policy incoherence.

In the context of high food prices, new issues have emerged with potential implications for food security. They include export restrictions, the use of biofuel mandates, and the opportunities and threats presented by increased foreign investment in agriculture. On these issues, as well as in terms of conventional support mechanisms, policies in emerging economies (in particular the BRIICS are

increasingly important. More generally, the BRIICS are of rising importance to agricultural trade and investment, and their policies need to be factored into wider discussions of policy coherence. It is no longer relevant to view the issues in terms of an OECD versus developing country divide.

A pro-active agenda for policy coherence would involve not just eliminating policies that distort trade, but also enacting positive measures to increase food availability, for example by raising agricultural productivity, using resources sustainably, and eliminating waste and over-consumption. Across countries, there are important gains to be realised from knowledge sharing, and from multilateral action to provide global public goods – not least smoother functioning of the multilateral trading system.