Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains

January 2015. Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains. Draft for comment.

As the de‌mand for food increases, agriculture will continue to attract growing investment, particularly in developing countries where investment stocks in agriculture are relatively low.

• New actors in the sector may be confronted with ethical dilemmas and find it difficult to uphold widely-supported standards of responsible business conduct (RBC), notably in countries with weak governance and insecure land rights.
• Investors should thus implement due diligence to ensure that their investments are sustainable and bring long-term benefits to home and host countries, especially small-scale farmers and rural communities. 

In this context, the OECD and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO) are developing due diligence guidance to help enterprises observe existing widely-supported standards for RBC along agricultural supply chains. This guidance will assist the National Contact Points of countries adhering to theOECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprisesto mediate any alleged breaches of the RBC recommendations contained in the Guidelines.

 

Introduction to the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for responsible mineral supply chains from OECD Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs