Agriculture production in OECD countries continues to increase, with uneven impacts on the environment, according to the 2026 update of Environmental Performance of Agriculture in OECD Countries.
Between 1990 and 2023, agricultural production increased by over 30% while agricultural land decreased. Since 2013, production has grown faster than key inputs such as energy, freshwater, and fertiliser, a pattern consistent with relative decoupling between inputs contributing to environmental pressures and agricultural production.
That said, with regards to environmental performance, nitrogen and phosphorus balances and agricultural ammonia emissions have shown clear decreases in absolute terms over the past ten years, whilst agricultural greenhouse gas emissions remained stable and farmland biodiversity decreased in absolute terms.
The improvements observed in indicators related to nitrogen and phosphorus (agricultural ammonia and nutrient balances), key ingredients in fertilisers, are encouraging. However, in the case of nutrient balances, improvements are partly driven by trends observed since 2021 that may be associated with fertiliser price hikes and may not persist in the long-term.
Total agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have remained broadly stable since 1990, despite production growth. This means that emissions per unit of production have declined significantly, although overall emissions have not seen reductions. Importantly, the average rate of improvement has slowed since the 2000s.
Farmland biodiversity is one area where performance has shown signs of deterioration. Although this measure has limitations, it suggests declining farm biodiversity trends in most OECD countries that report on this index, likely linked to agricultural intensification, habitat loss, and changes in land use.
Taken together, the data indicates that agriculture in OECD countries is becoming more efficient in the use of inputs with potential negative impact on the environment. This is a key step towards greater environmental sustainability.
However, the data also highlights that these improvements go hand in hand with deteriorating performance in certain agri-environmental dimensions, such as farmland biodiversity, and that the pace of improvement is slowing for some indicators.
Sustained improvements in environmental performance will require stronger and more targeted policy action to reduce overall pressures while supporting productive and resilient food systems.
For further information:
OECD agri-environmental indicators (AEI) database
OECD work on agriculture and environment
PIMA-AFOLU database and dashboard
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