Policy Pathways to Sustainable Food Systems 2023

Policy Pathways to Sustainable Food Systems

Agriculture and food systems are both drivers and victims of escalating climate and nature crises, in turn increasing the risks to healthy diets, livelihoods and economies. Public policies often set incentives for farming and market practices that further exacerbate these trends, but they can also play a role in reversing them. The global Policy Dialogue on Transition to Sustainable Agriculture is a peer-to-peer platform to share experience, facilitate partnerships and catalyse policy leadership to accelerate the transition to sustainable agriculture and food systems that benefit people, prosperity and the planet.

Policy Pathway Briefs provide an overview of emerging experiences and lessons on policy approaches that contribute to this transition, on a series of topics requested by Policy Dialogue members. We recognize that the briefs are in no way exhaustive and that options facing governments look very different across and within countries. They aim to act as a discussion starter and facilitate exchanges between Policy Dialogue members, drawing on the experiences presented by members and examples that are identified through further research.

These briefs focus respectively on fertilizers and policy actions that can incentivize efficient and more sustainable use and production of synthetic fertilizers; soil health, identifying policy instruments and actions for governments to provide incentives and support to farmers to protect and restore agricultural soils; and Payments for Ecosystems or Environmental Services (PES) as a mechanism for providing incentives to land users to transition to more sustainable land management.