These five farmers and agriculturalists are Nuffield International Farming Scholars, a global network that focuses on personal capacity building, excellence in agriculture and global thought leadership. From their corners of the globe, they share what they are excited about for the future of agriculture.
Heleen Lansink, Netherlands
Because the Netherlands is so small, I often say we farm in the backyards of the cities. All those millions of people are constantly looking at what we are doing. Those people don’t want to see big farms with thousands of cows. They only want to see small family farms. In the Netherlands, I think the biggest opportunity is to add value to the services you provide for society. That can be clean air and water, capturing CO2, healthy soil, etc.
Andrew Fowler, Australia
The increase in land costs have made farming profitably a real challenge. So, you have to have the ability to continually improve what you do and how you do it to make sure you improve your profitability and sustainability. We have to be continuously getting better in the way we use our inputs to improve the profitability and the environmental footprint of what we do. Our goal in the last 20 years has been to get the basics right, execute well and continually refine it.
Luciano Loman, Brazil
What excites me the most is infrastructure telecommunication, which actually will allow data to travel from where it is captured to where it will be used. The tools we have today have low usage rates; they have not reached their full potential because of connectivity. In Brazil, we have poor infrastructure. Where food is being produced, we have less people and fewer communication networks. In thinking about the amount of data, information and insights we can generate in the future, we have a very exciting path ahead.
Ranga Huruba, Zimbabwe
A lot of the cattle in Zimbabwe is produced by small-scale and communal producers. I’m excited to see them have a bigger contribution to our country’s GDP. It would really benefit the general population if all of our livestock producers had entry into markets, good genetics, and access to education and technology. Then they can adapt and adopt practices to have better productivity.
Karina Pierce, Ireland
I’m working with Enterprise Ireland, which is the government organization responsible for the development and growth of Irish enterprises in world markets. My area of focus is dairy, and it’s an area I’ve worked in for the last 20 years. The growth we’ve seen in Irish dairy in the last five years is really exciting. Our focus of grass-based dairy production is a unique selling point and an exciting area for growth. The trends in consumer preference for grass-fed dairy will continue to grow, and I think one that Ireland be well capitalized to meet.
Watch the full conversation with these international farmers from the 2021 Top Producer Summit:
