Agricultural support policies have multiple and sometimes contradictory effects on the environment. However, countries are engaged in reforms that have started to lower the levels of support and reduce trade barriers. There is also a move towards policies that aim to provide assistance to agriculture, targeted to specific outcomes and with the potential to be less production and trade distorting. Payments to farmers for environmental purposes are increasing. Such payments are often intended to compensate farmers for the costs of reducing polluting activities or to enhance the provision of environmental services.
Many countries promote sustainable agriculture through information, extension and technical support.
And some countries encourage farmers to engage in co-operative, local approaches to improve environmental performance. In this changing context, there is a need for a better understanding and monitoring of the environmental effects of agricultural policy reform and freer trade. This concerns primarily the effects of agricultural policies on the environment, but it also applies to the impacts of environmental measures on agriculture, especially as the number of these measures affecting agriculture is increasing. Work in the OECD aims to improve the design, implementation and coherence between agricultural and environmental policies. In March 1998, OECD Agriculture Ministers asked the OECD to foster sustainable development through analysing and measuring the effects on the environment of domestic agricultural and agri-environmental policies and trade measures.