Geneva, October 23:

Global agricultural subsidies declined by two percentage points in 2006 from the previous year to a total of $268 billion (214 billion euros), the OECD said today.

The amount of money given to farmers thus represented some 27 per cent of their income among the OECD’s 36 members, although aid as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) fell on average to 1.1 per cent from 2.5 per cent in the 1980s.

The EU remains by far the largest provider of subsidies at $138 billion, way ahead of Japan ($41 billion), the United States ($29 billion) and South Korea ($25 billion), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said.