European Union (EU) direct payments to farmers should no longer serve as income support, an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) expert said at the Ecosocial Forum in Vienna Monday.

Ken Ash, Director of the OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate, said rising prices of agricultural commodities such as wheat, maize and sugar over the past 10 years allow for a change in direction of spending, and should be shifted toward innovation in the agricultural sector.

The change should "not happen overnight, but in the next 10 to 20 years," he said, adding that innovation was necessary due to limited soil, water and biodiversity with which to grow food.

By 2050 the global agricultural industry will need to support about nine billion people and require an estimated 70 percent more food and fodder, particularly in emerging markets, so "business as usual" will not suffice and new political concepts in agriculture will be needed, the agricultural expert said.

Austrian Agricultural Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich said intensification and sustainability in the sector is not a contradiction, and an ecological intensification through crop cultivation advances or use of modern technologies made this possible.

As an example, within three decades the agricultural sector in the country had managed to halve the amount of nitrogen fertilizer used on sugar beets, and double yields at the same time.