Agricultural support policies affect the pattern and structure of agricultural production, with consequences for the environment. But what are these impacts and how might they be affected by further agricultural policy reform and trade liberalisation? What are governments doing to improve the environmental performance of agriculture, and how do these affect domestic production and international competitiveness? This study takes an in-depth look at the arable crop sector in OECD countries and draws some conclusions about the impacts of policy intervention.

Agriculture, Trade and the Environment: The Arable Crop Sector attempts to answer these questions. The report contains economic and structural data, agri-environmental indicators for the arable crop sector, and analysis of the policy measures affecting arable crop farming and environmental issues at both the national and regional levels.

This book focuses on such areas as:

• Multilateral agricultural trade liberalisation: the likely impacts on output and environmental issues relating to land use, chemical input use, soil, water, air quality and biodiversity.
• Agricultural support policies for arable crops: the impacts of price support and direct payment measures on the environment, and cross compliance measures.
• Agri-environmental payments: their production and trade effects.
• Agri-environmental regulations: the cost to arable crop producers and the effect on competitiveness.

This is the third in a series of in-depth studies being undertaken by the OECD to investigate the linkages between agriculture, trade and the environment. The first study on the pig sector was published in 2003, and the second study on the dairy sector was published in 2004.

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