World Bank examines why agricultural subsidies keep failing

Agricultural subsidies — direct government payments to farmers — are widespread globally but often fail to achieve their stated goals of stabilizing prices, supporting small farmers, or improving food security. The World Bank working paper documents how these subsidies create market distortions, lock governments into long-term spending commitments, and frequently benefit large landowners rather than the small farmers they're supposed to help.

Subsidies reshape global food prices and trade flows, affecting everything from what poor countries can afford to import to why some farmers stay trapped in low-productivity farming — if this paper strengthens the case for reform, it could shift how governments spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually on agriculture.