OECD countries provided more aid to agriculture last year, with producer support accounting for 19 percent of gross farm receipts from 18 percent in 2011, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

Producer support in its 34 member states rose to $258.6 billion in 2012 from $257.2 billion a year earlier, the Paris-based group wrote in a report. Support as a portion of gross receipts reached the lowest level in 2011 since the organization started tracking the data in the mid-1980s.

The world food price index of 55 food items tracked by the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization fell to an average 211.8 last year from a record 227.6 in 2011, still more than double the level a decade ago. Eight of the world’s 10 biggest farm exporters are OECD members, led by the U.S., based on World Trade Organization data.

“In the OECD area, there is a long-term downward trend in support to agriculture,” the group wrote. “OECD countries are increasingly delinking support from production.”

The level of producer support in OECD countries dropped from 37 percent of gross farm receipts in the 1986-88 period and 30 percent in 1995-97, the report showed.

In the European Union, producer support rose to an estimated $107 billion last year from $106.4 billion in 2011, while in Japan the amount gained to $64.8 billion from $60.5 billion, the report showed. U.S. producer support fell to $30.2 billion from $31.6 billion, the OECD reported.

China, Russia

In 47 countries that jointly account for close to 80 percent of global agricultural output, including China and Russia, producer support increased to 17 percent of gross farm receipts in 2012 from 15 percent a year earlier, according to the OECD.

China’s producer support jumped to an estimated $165.6 billion from $118.5 billion in 2011, while in Indonesia the amount climbed to $28 billion from $18.9 billion, based on the report. Russia’s support fell to $13.2 billion from $15.7 billion, the OECD said.

For countries where support for agriculture is falling only slowly or rising, those developments are often linked to self-sufficiency targets for farming and food products, the organization said.

“In China, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Russia and Turkey, the reliance on import protection, market price support and production-linked payments remains high,” the OECD said. “Narrow self-sufficiency targets often push countries toward high border protection and market-price support, effectively taxing consumers and decreasing food affordability, at least in the short term.”