The State of Food and Agriculture 2007

FAO publishes The State of Food and Agriculture 2007.

Paying farmers for environmental services

FAO annual Report. SOFA 2007. 15 November 2007

This year’s edition of The State of Food and Agriculture 2007 concludes that carefully targeted payments to farmers could be a promising approach to protect the environment and to address growing concerns about climate change, biodiversity loss and water supply.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2007 explores the potential for agriculture to provide enhanced levels of environmental services alongside the production of food and fibre.

Demand for environmental services from agriculture – including climate change mitigation, improved watershed management and biodiversity preservation – will increase in the future, but better incentives to farmers are needed if agriculture is to meet this demand.

As one among several other possible policy tools, payments to farmers for environmental services hold promise as a flexible approach to enhancing farmer incentives to sustain and improve the ecosystems. Nevertheless, challenges must be overcome if the potential of this approach is to be realized, especially in developing countries.
Download the full SOFA 2007 publication

Next year: November 2008: Bioenergy: Can it fuel a rural renaissance?