In particular, where it is felt dial farm households’ incomes need to be supported, measures that target families - as are used in social policies for other sectors of the economy - rather than policies tied to agricultural land (which are still the basis of most “decoupled” payments) should be used (OECD, 2003a). Hence, a blueprint for a synthetic new agricultural policy w'ould not include “decoupled” payments. Decoupling is, therefore, an alternative to removing past price support without providing any accompanying assistance to farmers: it is not a policy instrument to be introduced in the first place.