The Pace of Agriculture Quickens As Countries Focus on Food Security
8 July 2021 ANALYSIS
A popular phrase in technology circles started popping up in 2015: “Change has never happened this fast before, and it will never move this slow again.”
Sometimes called the Change Pace Paradox, it largely referred to accelerated advancements in computer processing and storage, global connectivity enabled by smart phones, and the resultant social change perpetuated by ubiquitous communications.
The social implications of the technology are most pervasive and potentially disruptive, and just about 5 years later, technology has created platforms that enable tangible change in almost every facet of life. Consider the current conversations on energy, climate, equality, political systems, and of course, agriculture.
Consumers now influence agriculture like never before as grocers, food processors, and governments respond to the groundswell of sustainability priorities that consumers demand. Regenerative agriculture has become a mainstream term to represent carbon farming, biodiversity and water use, and farmers are evaluating their production systems to reflect the marketability of their produce as a result of these prioritized metrics.
Digital farming is becoming a larger investment for traditional agriculture input companies, and innovation is percolating through the farming community to log every detail, including seed, soil, input use, carbon, water, labor, transportation, processing, packaging and labeling. Whole lifecycle systems are technically possible.
Automated mechanization and machine learning is creating application systems that have the potential to use 80% fewer pesticides without sacrificing pest control.
Governments around the world, instigated by the Black Swan of managing through COVID-induced food insecurity, are launching domestic food production initiatives and energy policies that deploy advancements in vertical and indoor farming, sustainable production, and export limitations to shore up food and energy supplies. These projects are capturing significant investment, interest, and approval from legislatures, regulators, and consumers.
Regulatory pressures have put a timeline on many crop protection products around the world, notably in Europe, and scrutiny on widely used AIs is getting more intense in many places every day.
These developments represent rapid change to traditional agriculture, which is more intertwined with other industries, economies, and end users than ever before, making many businesses susceptible to disruption.
The hard question is: What is the real pace of these changes? Will agriculture transform in the next couple years, or, like many technologies, promise theoretical advancements that never seem to take hold outside the early adopter community? Will change be incremental or transformative? How do I need to prepare my business?
These are the questions that prompted AgriBusiness Global to launch our new Executive Outlook newsletter, so we can track the pace of change to help with your strategic direction for the next 3-5 years. We think we’re at an inflection point where the pace of change will be transformative for agriculture production, and it will affect the way farmers use crop protection product, fertilizers, biological products, digital farming, mechanization, and technology to track every detail about their produce.
We plan to bring provocative news and trends to your inbox so you can stay informed on all the trends affecting your business today and in the years to come because however you gauge the pace of change today, it will be faster tomorrow.
Get The Newsletter Today!
