Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability in the Netherlands is part of the OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews series. It was undertaken at the request of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. The review examines the conditions in which businesses in the Netherlands undertake innovation in the food and agriculture sector to become more productive and environmentally sustainable. It starts with an overview of the food and agriculture sector and outlines development challenges and opportunities (Chapter 2). A wide range of policies which influence incentives forinnovation are then examined: economic stability, governance and trust in institutions (Chapter 3); a favourable and predictable environment for investment (Chapter 4); capacities and public services enabling business development (Chapter 5); agricultural policy (Chapter 6) and the operation of the agricultural innovation system (Chapter 7).

The Dutch food, agriculture and horticulture sector is innovative and export oriented, with high value-added along the food chain and significant world export shares for many products.

Australia’s agriculture and food industries are well placed to contribute to the economy’s future growth given the robust prospects of global food demand and the continuing high international competitiveness of these sectors.

The Netherlands has built an agricultural sector that is a world leader in productivity and competitiveness. Policies for the Future of Farming and Food in the Netherlands takes stock of the current situation in the agriculture sector.

Abstract: This report investigates the link between farm innovation and economic performance. The study uses a unique survey dataset maintained by Wageningen Economic Research in the Netherlands. A structural multi-stage model of firm-level innovation is applied. The model contains four steps: first, the decision of the farmer to innovate at all; second the innovation intensity, measured by expenditures on innovation activities; third the output of the innovation process, which is measured by realized product, process, organisational or marketing-related innovation; fourth, productivity changes as a result of innovation. The analysis is performed for two types of farms - dairy and crop farms - and covers the period from 2004 to 2014. A number of factors are found to be decisive for the magnitude and success of farm innovations in the Netherlands. Among them regulations and standards, the level of co-operation with knowledge producing institutions, own product and process-related development activities, farm size, the age of the farm operator as well as confidence in business and sector developments. Based on these and other results, the report derives implications for policies aimed at promoting farm innovation and productivity and sustainability in the agricultural sector

Estonian agriculture has undergone significant growth and structural change since the 1990s in a policy and regulatory environment that has been mostly supportive of investment. The implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy has contributed to the modernisation of the country's agriculture.

Agricultural innovation in Sweden has sought to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of the agri-food sector by ensuring a high level of environmental and animal welfare standards, while raising the productivity and financial viability of farms.

The TransForum Model: Transforming Agro-innovation Toward Sustainable Development presents new insights on how to use innovation for the complex challenge of sustainable development. Innovation has been at the heart of the positive agricultural developments in both production and productivity growth during the last decades. Due to the negative impact of these developments on the physical and social environment, a transformational change of the agricultural sector is needed to shift toward a more sustainable development. Changing the agro innovation system is necessary to bring this about. In this book, six years of experimenting with sustainable development in agriculture is translated into a set of principles and guidelines. Together these constitute The TransForum Model to deal with innovation and sustainable development. This book shows how different scientific disciplines contribute to this new mode of agro innovation.

Markets that function well within a stable regulatory and policy environment are key to improving the productivity and sustainability of the food and agriculture sector. This report contains the main findings and policy lessons gained from a series of wide-ranging country reviews on how government policies can improve sectoral productivity and sustainability through their impact on innovation, structural change, natural resource use, and climate change. Improving the policy environment would require rolling back those policies that distort markets the most and retain farmers in uncompetitive and low-income activities, harm the environment, stifle innovation, slow structural and generational change, and weaken resilience.