Agriculture and fisheries

Natural hazard-induced disasters (NHID), such as floods, droughts, severe storms, and animal pests and diseases have significant, widespread and long-lasting impacts on agricultural sectors around the world. With climate change set to amplify many of these impacts, a 'business-as-usual' approach to disaster risk management in agriculture cannot continue if we are to meet the challenges of agricultural productivity and sustainability growth, and sustainable development. Drawing from seven case studies – Chile, Italy, Japan, Namibia, New Zealand, Turkey and the United States – this joint OECD-FAO report argues for a new approach to building resilience to NHID in agriculture. It explores the policy measures, governance arrangements, on-farm strategies and other initiatives that countries are using to increase agricultural resilience to NHID, highlighting emerging good practices. It offers concrete recommendations on what more needs to be done to shift from coping with the impacts of disasters, to an ex ante approach that focuses on preventing and mitigating the impacts of disasters, helping the sector be better prepared to respond to disasters, and to adapt and transform in order to be better positioned for future disasters.

Agricultural producers in the United States have significant experience in managing the risk of natural hazard-induced disasters (NHID), but the 2019 Midwestern Floods and Hurricane Florence in 2018 highlighted the importance of increasing resilience to extreme floods. A number of current practices already build resilience. Producers can access science-based information on adaptation to climate and weather-related risks, preparedness and recovery, including through the USDA Climate Hubs. Formal networks build relationships and capabilities before a disaster, improving the effectiveness of disaster preparedness and response. USDA conservation programmes and various soil health initiatives help farmers to mitigate the impacts of floods on production. However, most farm support is directed to agricultural risk management policies and disaster assistance that help producers cope with the impacts of NHID. Integrating resilience objectives into these programmes would send a clearer signal to producers about the need to adapt and increase resilience. Policy makers should also engage with trusted stakeholders – including farm organisations and extension agents – to promote the benefits of practices that build resilience to NHID ID.

The US food and agriculture sector is innovative, competitive and export-oriented. Changes in national and global demand offer further opportunities for US agri-food products, although climate change and other resource constraints could create additional challenges, in particular in some regions. Maintaining high productivity growth, while improving the sustainable use of resources will require further innovation. In a policy environment generally favourable to investment  and innovation, the strong US agricultural innovation system is expected to continue to create innovations that will be widely adopted, to the extent that these can be widely accepted.  

The United States is one of the most important agricultural producers in the world. It has a very large domestic market and is the world’s largest exporter of agricultural products. Indeed, the share of US agricultural production exported is more than double that of any other US industry and the trade surplus in agricultural products acts as an important stimulus to the US economy. Thus, US agricultural policies exert a strong influence on world agricultural markets.    The United States maintains an array of agricultural policies with goals that range from the traditional objectives of stabilising agricultural production and supporting farm income to those that have more recently increased in importance, such as assuring adequate nutrition, securing food safety, encouraging environmental protection and facilitating rural development.  This study analyses and evaluates US agricultural policies, focusing on the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, in the context of developments in agricultural policy that have taken place in the United States since 1985. It looks closely at five US Farm Acts: the Food Security Act of 1985; the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990; the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996; the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (2002 Farm Act); and the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008. This study also discusses several emerging issues and challenges for US agricultural policies, and offers key policy recommendations.