5 Ways Farming Will Change in the Next 30 Years
Farmers are only 30 growing seasons from the biggest challenge agriculture has ever faced—growing 70% more food on the same amount of land they do today.
That’s the topic four experts tackled on the May 12 webinar, “Transforming the Next Era of Agriculture Through Innovation.” The online event was part of the Fast Company Innovation Festival 360 and sponsored by Bayer Crop Science division.
“By 2050, farmers will need to produce enough food, fuel and fiber for an additional 2 billion people,” says Abigail Bassett, the panel moderator for FastCo Works. “At the same time, resource scarcity and climate change add complexity to this enormous undertaking.”
“Today's farms, food technology firms and supply chain managers have stepped up to this challenge from collaborative public-private partnerships to widespread adoption of the latest technology,” Bassett says.
Here are the five trends that will change the way you farm.
1. Data will empower farmers with more choices.
“Industries that weren’t associated with farming a decade or two ago are now some of our largest partners,” says Kyle Bridgeforth, a fifth-generation farmer, accounts manager and partner with Bridgeforth Farms, Tanner, Ala.
With cloud-based technology, equipment now collects hundreds of metrics on every acre it passes over in the field, Bridgeforth says. These technology innovators and cloud management systems are helping farmers process data and collect it in real time, which helps farmers make large-scale adjustments in real time.
“We have a historical reference of what we’ve done in years past, leading us to make decisions on what we’re going to do in the future,” Bridgeforth says.
2. Data sharing will be essential.
It’s about more than simply collecting the data, says Karen Hildebrand, a fourth-generation farmer and head of solutions architecture, Amazon Web Services. You also have to make it meaningful with artificial intelligence and machine learning that will help farmers with actual insights for change.
Hildebrand offers this example. Technology can now offer dairy farmers more insights into what each dairy cow is producing and connect that back to the products the cow produces. In what Hildebrand describes as “decorating the cow with data,” a wearable smart device or collar tracks the cow’s rumination, how much she eats and how much she moves, and ties this information back to what she was able to produce in each of her three daily milkings.
Bridgeforth leverages technology for efficiency on his operations. Because they’re spread out over several locations, technology allows them to work remotely. Satellite imagery reduces the man hours needed to visit each field individually. Electronic rain gauges, weather patterns and GPS give regular insights, and he receives alerts on equipment breakdowns before they happen.
“Now, we all have our iPads in our hands. We can check and see what the moisture level is in the field, we can see where the equipment is, and automatically find routes to get the equipment there more quickly,” he says.
3. Innovation will unlock solutions to produce more food in ways that are environmentally sustainable.
“One of the greatest ways to do this is to increase productivity on individual acres and minimize the agricultural footprint,” says Bob Reiter, head of research and development at Bayer Crop Science. “We really need to leverage technology and innovation to achieve that increased food supply.”
Consider that the average corn yield in the United States is 175 bu. per acre, Reiter says.
“The reality is when a grower drives a combine through a field, unless they're looking on their yield monitor—another one of those innovations that occurred in the last few decades—they're seeing yields going from 40 to 50 bu. to 300 bu. plus,” Reiter says. “Obviously, that’s telling us we need to learn how to manage each individual square meter differently—that each of those square meters on that field and every one of those fields is actually very unique and different. And it's a question of how do you optimize productivity?”
Ultimately, Reiter says technology should offer the farmer insights to manage each square meter, from the number of seeds planted, to planting density, fertility requirements and more.
“I think it’s a huge data opportunity for farming. And the goal really is, how do you lift up the productivity of those lower producing square meters to a higher degree, because the genetic potential is there,” he says.
4. ROI will drive data sharing.
It’s critical for farmers to take charge of their data, so they control who gets their data and how it’s used. Hildebrand says data security is job zero for everyone, and farmers should look for infrastructure providers that instill confidence that the farmers control their data—and also control what’s shared with trusted advisers.
Data sharing is not new, Bridgeforth says, but it hasn’t been public facing. For years farmers have shared their data with USDA and with input providers for test plots, for example.
To be worthwhile, data sharing will have to offer benefits back to the farmer, whether it’s a financial benefit, a business benefit, or providing data to the microclimate level to produce a higher yielding, lower cost crop.
Carbon markets are one area Reiter says may help drive data sharing in a way that’s economically feasible for farmers.
“How do we use crops to sequester carbon? How do we make it more economically viable for growers to adopt different options and technologies so that they can achieve that balance?” Reiter says. “That's one thing about farmers is they're highly committed to doing the right thing. But just like all of us, they farm for a livelihood and they have to have economic incentives in place that allow them to adopt technology quickly and be able to achieve this incredibly important balance.”
(Learn more about emerging carbon markets in the Carbon Innovation Center.)
5. Testing will happen—fast.
You’ve likely heard the fail fast, learn faster philosophy. And this same principle applies to agriculture. The panelists agreed that with 30 seasons left to boost food production by 70%, agriculture is well positioned to meet the challenge.
“I think there's always a perception that agriculture isn't particularly innovative or maybe isn't as in tune with other technical spaces, right? And I think that's a misconception. Actually agriculture is quite technical,” Reiter says. “It's an incredibly fast adopter of technology.”
