Policy seminar: Repurposing agricultural subsidies can deliver better value for people, the planet, and the global economy

For decades, governments have provided massive support to agriculture—an average of $639 billion per year during 2016-18—yet global food production is environmentally unsustainable and a major contributor to climate change, and food security remains tenuous for many.

A Feb. 2 IFPRI policy seminar explored potential solutions to these problems laid out in the new IFPRI-World Bank report Repurposing Agricultural Policies and Support: Options to Transform Agriculture and Food Systems to Better Serve the Health of People, Economies, and the Planet.

Both the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 and the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) stressed the hidden costs of current food and land use systems–$12 trillion per year–that significantly outweigh the estimated $10 trillion annual market value of food systems. “To meet this demand for change, new coalitions and analytical work including the IFPRI-World Bank report will aid the adoption of technological solutions that foster sustainable productivity growth across all countries and accelerate the transition to better food systems,” said Mari Elka Pangestu, World Bank Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships.

Photo credit: IFPRI