Managing risk is inherent in agriculture. Producers – and the sector as a whole – are confronted with production risk due to fluctuations in weather, market risk due to price volatility, financial risk resulting from the need to borrow funds to finance operations, and institutional or political risks from changes in policy. But even for a sector accustomed to risks and employing measures to manage them, farmers and other actors continue to be confronted with new and unknown risks that threaten farm businesses, supply chains, and even food security, eliciting emergency responses from governments and sector actors seemingly caught off-guard. At this writing, the largest global pandemic in more than a century, COVID-19, has disrupted the sector in unexpected ways, cutting off producers from seasonal labourers, affecting the wellbeing of workers in food processing plants, and even virtually shutting down certain supply chains as lockdowns severely curtailed restaurant and hospitality sectors.

This report explores how countries can strengthen the resilience of their agricultural sectors to multiple risks. A shifting risk landscape in agriculture – due to increasing weather variability, natural hazards, pests and diseases, and market shocks – will require public and private actors to consider the risk landscape over the long term, place a greater emphasis on what can be done ex ante to reduce risk exposure and increase preparedness, and prioritise investments that build resilience capacities both on-farm and for the sector as a whole. This report offers a framework for applying resilience thinking to risk management in agriculture, and explores how four OECD countries – Australia, Canada, Italy and the Netherlands – are mainstreaming resilience into their agricultural risk management policy frameworks.