copy the linklink copied!Annex C. Country notes
Each note refers to the national assessment and recommendation at the time each country review was published (year indicated on the top of each country note). Efforts undertaken since the review publication are not accounted for.
copy the linklink copied!Australia (2015)
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Australia has abundant agricultural land, but agricultural productive potential is constrained by poor soils, scarce water resources and the most variable climate conditions in the world.
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The agricultural sector has a strong export focus, and many sectors are heavily reliant on foreign markets as the primary source of their demand.
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Productivity growth has been central to the continued viability and competitiveness of Australian farm businesses, and driven by advances in technologies and structural adjustment on the back of continued reforms.
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Productivity growth in agriculture slowed down considerably in the 2000s, due, in part, to the difficult climatic conditions that prevailed throughout this period.
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Low water availability in Australia’s agricultural producing regions, which climate change will accentuate, is a principal factor limiting the expansion of agricultural activities.
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Australia’s agriculture and food industries are well-placed to exploit global food demand, but this depends on maintaining productivity growth relative to trade competitors.
copy the linklink copied!Brazil (2016)
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Brazil is the world's fifth largest country, both by land area and population.
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Agriculture benefits from abundant land and water resources, and diverse geographical conditions, although most of the country is tropical.
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Agriculture and the agro-processing sector have shown impressive growth, largely driven by productivity improvements and structural adjustment resulting from broad economic reforms, as well as new technologies.
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Sustaining high agricultural growth is critical to Brazil’s overall development given the importance of the agri-food sector to the national economy and to poverty reduction
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It is also important globally due to Brazil’s role as a leading supplier on international agricultural markets.
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Key drivers of agricultural growth in the past have weakened, necessitating increased cost-competitiveness.
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Main challenges are to ensure that the sector expands sustainably; to reconcile agricultural growth with poverty alleviation objectives; and to overcome structural deficiencies characteristic of an emerging economy.
copy the linklink copied!Canada (2015)
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Canada is a very large country in terms of land mass, occupying the Northern part of America, with a relatively small, wealthy and open economy.
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Canadian agriculture benefits from relatively abundant land and water resources, although there are significant regional differences in environmental pressure and climate, and it faces limited environmental constraints which relate mainly to local water pollution by agricultural nutrients.
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Canada is a major and competitive exporter of agricultural commodities.
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Agricultural productivity growth, resulting from technological advances and increases in farm scale and consolidation, has driven production and income growth without significantly increasing pressure on resource use.
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The capacity to innovate is crucial for the export oriented Canadian sector to take advantage of the growing and changing demand for food and agricultural products at the global level.
copy the linklink copied!China (2018)
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China achieved a remarkable expansion of agricultural production, but intensive use of chemical inputs has led to soil degradation, water pollution, and damaged bio-diversity.
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Water resources reached the limit of sustainable use, particularly in areas where irrigation is intensive or water resources are scarce. The development of the intensive livestock sector has created serious environmental stress, especially on water quality.
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China has succeeded in reducing the incidence of poverty in rural areas, but rapid industrialisation has led to large income disparity between urban and rural households.
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The rising cost of labour and the rapid aging of the rural population require agricultural production to concentrate on a smaller number of more productive farms.
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Consolidating small and fragmented farm operations in large-scale units is one of the most important pathways of improving productivity growth and sustainability in China.
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Dietary changes associated with income growth have been a major driver for the shift of domestic agricultural production towards livestock and fruits and vegetables.
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Future growth opportunities of agriculture in China lie primarily in agricultural products that are intensive in capital and knowledge.
copy the linklink copied!Estonia (2018)
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Estonia is the northernmost and smallest of the Baltic countries.
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Estonia has experienced significant structural change and growth in agricultural production and productivity, in particular since the country joined the European Union in 2004.
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This growth was achieved with relatively limited, mainly localised, environmental pressure, taking advantage of abundant land and water resources.
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Most productivity improvements occurred in larger farms, and there is scope for increasing productivity in smaller farms.
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The food processing sector has not invested as much and adjusted as fast as primary agriculture, and is still struggling in terms of capacity and competitiveness.
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Looking forward, the agri-food sector will have to keep adjusting to changing conditions, such as higher labour costs, agricultural policy developments, more diverse demand, and climate change, which will provide both opportunities and challenges.
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Responding to demand for diversified, healthier products can be an opportunity to develop new products, and improve the competitiveness of the Estonian agro-food sector.
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Maintaining the recent growth rates sustainably will require further innovation and adaptation in food and agriculture.
copy the linklink copied!Japan (2019)
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Agriculture in Japan has contracted since 1990, in terms of production value, number of commercial farm households and number of farm workers. The food and agriculture sector is under continuous pressure to raise productivity to keep up with the highly competitive manufacturing sector and increase its exposure to international competition.
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The declining and ageing population in Japan has significant long-term implications for Japan’s agriculture, most notably a smaller domestic market and scarce labour force.
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Japan’s agriculture has been characterised by small-scale rice production, and structural transformation towards more profitable sectors and more productive large-scale farms has been a major policy agenda in agriculture. However, Japan’s agriculture today looks quite different from the traditional image. Agricultural production and land use is concentrated in a small number of large, commercial, often corporate farms. In 2015, the largest 3% of farms produced more than half of the total agricultural production.
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Agriculture has become a more technology- and data-intensive industry, incorporating a diversity of services into value generation.
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Strengthening the sector’s capacity to innovate and improving its environmental performance of agriculture is critical to ensure the long-term growth of agriculture in Japan. Innovation in agriculture increasingly depends on technologies developed outside agriculture, such as genetics and digital technologies. The process of innovation in agriculture is becoming highly interactive among a growing and diverse network of stakeholders, institutions and users. More integration of agriculture with other parts of the economy would bring Japan’s competitive technology and skills from outside agriculture and enhance innovation and entrepreneurship in agriculture.
copy the linklink copied!Korea (2018)
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The agriculture sector is under pressure to meet changing domestic demand, to improve its productivity to keep up with the highly competitive manufacturing sector and to increase its exposure to international competition.
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Per capita arable land area is the smallest among OECD countries. The highly fragmented land ownership structure hinders consolidated use of cropland and limits the scale of operations.
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The livestock sector has expanded rapidly to meet a growing national demand, but the rapid expansion of intensive livestock production has aggravated the environmental pressure from manure emission.
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Income disparity between farm and urban households expanded and income problems concentrate on aged farmers.
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Despite its comparative disadvantage in land-intensive crop production, Korea’s potential to export niche agricultural products and processed food that reflect its rich and unique food culture could be explored further.
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Korea’s agricultural innovation system can benefit from a strong advantage in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
copy the linklink copied!Latvia (2019)
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As a small, dynamic and open economy, Latvia has deployed a broad range of reform initiatives that have driven progress, although generally from low levels, in many of the areas that would nurture future innovation based economic growth. However, progress has been slower in agriculture.
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While Latvia’s agriculture faces challenging climatic conditions with a short vegetation period, it enjoys high levels of land and water availability and quality. Its environmental performance is high and, although there may be local environmental stress, no area of national concern has been identified so far despite intensification of mineral fertiliser use over the past decade.
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Today, cereals and dairy farming make up most of Latvia’s agricultural output. The structure of commercial farms is dual; livestock farms are typically smaller than the average EU farm, whereas cereal farms are mostly large and export-oriented. At the same time, half of the farms do not market any agricultural goods at all, thus weighing on the sector’s performance.
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While Latvia is mostly a service economy, its agriculture holds a relatively large share in the economy. Accession to the European Union and implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy stopped the sector’s decline and contributed to its relatively large share in the economy.
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Agricultural incomes have risen, both as a result of direct payments, and indirectly through structural adjustment and support to investments that have contributed to labour productivity growth, to higher yields and ultimately to higher agricultural Total Factor Productivity (TFP). However, the sector has not yet reached its full efficiency and productivity potential.
copy the linklink copied!Netherlands (2015)
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The Netherlands is a small, densely populated and urbanised European country.
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The Dutch food, agriculture and horticulture sector is innovative and export oriented, with high value-added along the food chain and significant world export shares for many products.
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Continuous adoption of innovation has permitted to reach high levels of productivity, and sustained productivity growth, in particular at the farm-level, in a context of increasing environmental regulatory constraints.
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Characterised by high land intensity, Dutch agriculture generates significant pressures on the environment.
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The challenge is whether marginal improvements in current technologies and know-how will be enough to pursue current rates of productivity growth, sustainably, and face future challenges, including those linked to climate change.
copy the linklink copied!Sweden (2018)
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The main socio-economic challenge facing the Swedish food and agriculture sector is achieving sustainable growth and employment, and maintaining high environmental and animal welfare standards, given the relatively weak competitiveness in several parts of the sector.
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The food and agriculture sector is a small and decreasing part of the Swedish economy in terms of output and employment. Structural changes in agriculture over time have resulted in a sharp decline in the number of farmers, and farms have become larger and more specialised.
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While Sweden does not have a comparative advantage overall in food and agriculture production, there is a high degree of heterogeneity and some sectors, such as vegetables and the downstream food supply chain are competitive.
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Since Sweden joined the European Union, total factor productivity (TFP) for the agricultural sector as a whole has grown at a slightly higher rate than the EU28 average over 1995-2016. The growth in agricultural TFP is mainly due to structural changes such as the concentration of production in fewer, larger and more efficient farms.
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High awareness of animal welfare, food safety and environmental issues by consumers and the citizens.
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Sweden has a robust innovation-oriented economy and the agricultural innovation system is mostly integrated in the general innovation framework.
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Making growth more sustainable, inclusive and green is a key overall policy objective.
copy the linklink copied!Turkey (2016)
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Turkey is a relatively well-endowed in land and water, and benefits from favourable climatic conditions for agriculture.
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Agriculture still employs almost a quarter of the active population.
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The Turkish agro-food sector has the potential to significantly contribute to the country’s overall economic development, but its ability to do so will depend largely on productivity growth.
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Rigidities in the labour market, regulations, taxation and education, and lacking infrastructure investment, particularly in rural areas, slow the sectors’ overall productivity growth.
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Irrigation expansion can help the growth of the sector if accompanied by improved and reinforced water management and policies.
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An essential challenge will be for Turkey to develop its rural economy to enable people to generate income outside low technology agriculture.
copy the linklink copied!United States (2016)
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The United States has a large, innovative and internationally competitive food and agricultural sector.
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Abundant arable and pasture land along with diverse climatic conditions allow for the production of a wide range of crop and livestock products. The sector also benefits from a diversity of efficient family farm enterprises dominated by large operations, innovative managers, competitive agri-food companies, and a large domestic consumer market.
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High Total Factor Productivity (TFP), largely driven by farm consolidation and the continuous and widespread adoption of innovation, enables sustained agricultural production growth.
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TFP growth has been achieved with reduction in environmental pressures, but there still exist areas with significant environmental problems linked to agriculture.
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US food and agriculture can take advantage of growing and diversifying demand, at both the national and global levels. Yet market, climate and resource-related constraints create new challenges to meet these demands, while maintaining past levels of high productivity and improving sustainability.
References
OECD (2019a), Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in Japan, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/92b8dff7-en.
OECD (2019b), Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in Latvia, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264312524-en.
OECD (2018a), Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in China, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264085299-en.
OECD (2018b), Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in Estonia, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264288744-en.
OECD (2018c), Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in Korea, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264307773-en.
OECD (2018d), Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in Sweden, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/9789264085268-en.
OECD (2016a), Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in Turkey, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264261198-en.
OECD (2016b), Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in the United States, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264264120-en.
OECD (2015a), Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in Australia, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264238367-en.
OECD (2015b), Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in Brazil, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264237056-en.
OECD (2015c), Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in Canada, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264238541-en.
OECD (2015d), Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in the Netherlands, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264238473-en.
OECD (2015e), Economic Policy Reforms 2015: Going for Growth, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/growth-2015-en.
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