*Other Developed refers to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.
Regional Overview
Asia & the Pacific has been the region providing the highest percentage of central government spending to agriculture between 2001 (3.85%) and 2017 (3.03%), followed by Africa, where the share has progressively declined from 3.66% (2001) to 2.30% (2017). The developed regions (Europe and other developed, which refers to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and United States) allocated the lowest share of central government expenditure to agriculture, both series fluctuating around 1%.
In 2008, during the food price crisis, all the regions (except Europe) experienced an increase in the agriculture share of central government expenditure. In particular, Asia & the Pacific and Latin America & the Caribbean registered the highest value of their whole series (respectively, 4.38% and 2.51%). [Chart 1]
Countries
The results at regional level are confirmed also at country level. Asia & the Pacific and Africa were the two regions with the highest agriculture share of central government spending, and included 9 of the top 10 countries between 2012 to 2016. This top 10 was led by Malawi (16.4%), Bhutan (13.0%), Uzbekistan (11.9%), Ethiopia (9%) and Bangladesh (8.7%).[Chart 2]
Chart 2: Top 10 countries in agricultural spending, average 2012-2016