Agriculture has undergone a series of revolutions – amid near-relentless innovation and improvement – since plants and animals were first domesticated almost 12,000 years ago. Through selective breeding, fertilization, and mechanization, farmers have made huge advances. Over the last few decades, significant gains in productivity have been achieved in the United States and other developed countries through research-led development in animal husbandry, crop science, genetics, and veterinary medicine.
The AgriFoodTech revolution now taking root goes deeper and wider, integrating technology – as the term suggests – with agriculture in new ways while also disrupting food production.
Given the scale of the challenges facing the world’s food supply systems, this revolution needs to be profound. By 2050 our planet will have more than 9 billion mouths to feed. As such, food production must increase by up to 70% to support this growing global population, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
But the challenge is greater than just meeting burgeoning demand. Food systems around the world are major drivers of climate change, which in turn is accelerating the loss of productive land and biodiversity, as well as impacting productivity across the world due to weather variability, extreme events, invasive species, and shifting agroecosystem boundaries.
The new agricultural revolution must harness digital technology and scientific breakthroughs in multiple fields while satisfying changing consumer demands – if the world’s food producers are to serve society and sustainability.
At Ayming USA, we provide you value by sharing our current oversight of the market and insights gained from working with ag businesses for the last 35 years. In our whitepaper, Cross-Fertilizing Innovation, we take a detailed look at the digital technologies that are pushing the current agricultural revolution and provide an expert understanding of what this all means for your ag business moving forward.
