Publications & Documents

This publication highlights the main conclusions of the Fishing for Development joint meeting, held in Paris in April 2014. The meeting was organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank (WB) to initiate a dialogue between the fisheries and development policy communities from member and partner countries and organizations of the OECD. It brought together delegates to the OECD Fisheries Committee and OECD Development Assistance Committee, representatives of partner developing countries invited by FAO, as well as experts and representatives from FAO, WB, non-governmental organizations and regional organizations. The meeting focused on issues central to promoting sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in developing, emerging and developed countries alike.

This publication also includes the background papers originally prepared to provide context for the issues addressed. It identifies questions for a future work agenda on policy coherence in fisheries and aquaculture, and makes evident the strong need for further dialogue between the fisheries and development communities at global and regional scales.

Knowledge investment supporting the adoption of environmentally friendly farm practices is a key driver behind innovation processes in agriculture, yet impact evaluations and financial assessments of existing initiatives remain scarce despite dramatic changes in orientation, organisation and intervention. This report examines the role, performance and impact of farm advisory services, training and extension initiatives in the OECD area to foster green growth in agriculture. Based on a series of case studies, the report discusses a range of methodological issues and the merits of the different types of providers, and identifies best practices in sustainable agricultural management.

This book brings together a collection of papers prepared for the Global Forum on Agriculture that took place at the OECD in December 2014. It reviews current knowledge about agricultural policy and agricultural trade policy settings, and questions its pertinence in light of the profound market and structural changes that have been taking place in the global agro-food sector in recent decades. It aims to inform and assist policy-makers and negotiators as they seek to overcome the problems that have made the agricultural pillar of the Doha Agenda trade negotiations particularly difficult. The data and analysis presented cover OECD countries and major G20 and emerging economies that account for the great bulk of global food production, consumption and trade.

This review assesses the performance of Colombian agriculture over the last two decades, evaluates Colombian agricultural policy reforms and provides recommendations to address key challenges in the future. The evaluation is based on the approach that agriculture policy should be evidence-based and carefully designed and implemented to support productivity, competitiveness and sustainability, while avoiding unnecessary distortions to production decisions and to trade. The report includes a special chapter focusing on agricultural innovation.

Volume II of this series compiles the science-based consensus documents of the OECD Task Force for the Safety of Novel Foods and Feeds from 2009 to 2014. They contain information for use during the regulatory assessment of food/feed products of modern biotechnology, i.e. developed from transgenic crops. Relevant information includes compositional considerations (nutrients, anti-nutrients, toxicants, allergens), use of the plant species as food/feed, key products and components suggested for analysis of new varieties for food use and for feed use, and other elements. These documents should be of value to applicants for commercial uses of novel foods and feeds, regulators and risk assessors in national authorities for their comparative approach, as well as the wider scientific community.