OECD Global Forum on Agriculture

The OECD Global Forum on Agriculture (GFA) is an annual platform of international dialogue on agricultural policy, bringing together policy makers, experts, farmers and other private sector actors to enable transformative solutions for sustainable agriculture and food systems.

To address challenges of an aging farming population, farm succession and generational renewal, GFA 2025 focused on “Attracting New Farmers for the Future of Agriculture”. It explored ways for enhancing the sector’s attractiveness to new entrants with diverse profiles and boosting the opportunities it offers for career development, in the context of digitalisation. Discussions covered enablers and barriers to entry and entrepreneurship in agriculture, including access to land, capital, loans, education, agricultural extension and skills, as well as questions of rural development and quality of life, diversity and inclusion, income and the profitability of farming. The aim was to rethink together the agricultural profession and the role of policies in making it attractive.

GFA 2025 was chaired by Isabel Bombal Diaz (Director General of Rural Development, Innovation and Agri-Food Training, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Spain) and Mark Roscam Abbing (Director General for Rural Areas, Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, Netherlands).

GFA 2025 explored the following themes:

• How to make agriculture a sector with a bright future that responds to current societal priorities?
• How to bring talent, skills and diversity to the sector? How to offer opportunities and attractive career paths to those in the sector?
• How to identify and remove barriers to entry? Which are the motivating factors to join?
• Which opportunities and challenges digitalisation and technological change bring for attracting new farmers?
• What is the role of policies to make agriculture more attractive and dynamic?

The 2025 Global Forum on Agriculture (GFA) focused on the theme “Attracting New Farmers for the Future of Agriculture”. The attractiveness of agriculture was highlighted during the 2022 OECD Agriculture Ministerial, with many OECD and other countries facing aging trends in farming and a lack of newcomers.

The high-level session of the GFA (11:15-12:30 Paris time) was livestreamed, with the recording available via the OECD Trade and Agriculture Youtube Channel.