﻿Agriculture Future in 2030 Ground-breaking changes are expected to occur
between now and 2030, leading to a revolution in the agricultural sector. For decades,
governments and large organisations have focused on food availability,
seeking to make all staple foods of our diet accessible at all times of the year.
Lately, however, things have been changing, as new factors have called for a rethinking of the
agricultural system as a whole. So how will food production change over the coming years?
Don’t forget to watch today’s video to the very end for insight on Agriculture Future in 2030!
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Organic Farming & New Trends New dietary trends are having an increasing
impact on farming practices. Certain sources are on an uptrend: the quantity of vegetables found on
people’s tables has been growing more and more significant, as animal-source food consumption
is falling. People are beginning to prioritise quality and diversity over quantity. According to
the European Union report 2019-2030 consumers are increasingly demanding when it comes to their food
and such issues as health, nutritional properties, origin, sustainability and animal welfare are
gaining crucial importance. The new demand has a decisive impact on cultivated varieties,
cultivation methods and livestock breeding. It is undisputed that certain market sectors, such as
those of organic and “zero-kilometre” products will grow significantly over the next decade.
Community policies in terms of environmental impact have also encouraged certain production
practices, such as crop rotation. However, the higher costs associated with some of these changes
are offset by the added value of the products. In the same report, the European Agency forecasts
that the areas dedicated to agriculture on the continent will decrease by 178 million
hectares by 2030. Crops will grow more slowly than in the past, although progress in seed
selection and management will still help farmers to achieve an overall increase in production.
Fighting Climate Change Climate change will change our production
methods in a decisive way, affecting factors such as rainfall, temperatures and soil quality.
Consequently, we must begin to address these changes adopting certain strategies.
The new climate change report of the European Environment Agency offers some recommendations,
first and foremost, adopting precision farming tools, which improve production and optimise the
application of fertilisers and crop protection chemicals. It also recommends growing crops that
are more resistant to heat and cold waves, as well as to drought and pests. Cover crops should be
used during the winter period to protect the soil, while generally speaking crop rotation greatly
benefits the soil. Other recommendations from the European agency for the next decade include
optimising irrigation, sustainable production in greenhouses and better animal fodder.
Climate deniers will soon go the way of the dinosaurs as there’s global consensus that climate
change is happening and it’s going to continue to have consequences such as more erratic and
severe weather, changes to agricultural growing areas and expanded areas of adoption for some
warmer-climate crops like corn and soybeans. Many feel that’s good news for Canada, which
should be able to take advantage of warmer growing seasons if soils can be kept productive and crops
developed through genetic advancements to overcome temporary, localized conditions and keep ahead of
evolving resistant weeds, pests and diseases. Soil scientists and many early-adopter farmers
are also backing the growth of regenerative agriculture with its focuses on improving soil
health through plant diversity using different cropping and livestock integration systems,
and with its strategy of building up microbial populations to confer more resilience to the
overall farm and make it more productive and sustainable. Regenerative, they say,
is the only way forward for farming in the future, and will have benefits not just at the farm level
but also environmentally and socially. Scientists feel emerging genetic technologies have the
potential to rapidly advance plant breeding and to produce crop varieties that are more resistant
to climate and pest issues. Until now, as well, farms have focused on expansion through getting
more land, but in the future the focus will shift to producing more on the same or fewer acres,
and again, regenerative agriculture, technology and innovation will have big roles to play.
New Technologies for Agriculture Lastly, technology is making giant steps
forward and the results will soon be visible. Over the last few years, we have witnessed
the introduction of many new technologies. Up until 10 years ago, such tools as Isobus and
assisted driving would have seemed like science fiction. Today, they are accessible to everyone.
More futuristic technologies are expected during the next decade – we might see robots and drones
roaming our fields, collecting data and taking care of our crops with increasing accuracy.
Fertilisation, weeding and even harvesting might be managed by artificial intelligence,
while next generation robots will also be able to offer suggestions on how to optimise production
and increase crop yields. Agricultural drones will be used in land mapping and problem detection.
They are also likely to be used to spray crops quickly and precisely in the future,
without wasting chemicals, thanks to sophisticated equipment. Data collection will also be integrated
with satellite crop monitoring systems to keep things under control at all times
and gather exhaustive information so as to take action quickly if necessary.
However, new technologies are not just about digital machinery and tools.
As a matter of fact, genetic engineering will play a very important role. We are all familiar
with GMOs. However, New Breeding Techniques are emerging as the new front line now.
Using the genome editing technique to modify specific parts of plant genes,
it is now possible to obtain new plant varieties that are more productive and more resistant much
faster than traditional cross breeding and hybridisation techniques would allow.
More About Robots & Digitalization Technology is the fun area to speculate
on as we see the current advances in things such as robotics (autonomous tractors and driverless
cars), artificial intelligence (equipment that will make decisions in the field),
and digitization of data. Although technology seems limitless in its possibilities,
the biggest hurdle is the issue of managing and connecting all the data so that it will empower
farmers and the agricultural industry to make informed decisions, seamlessly and across multiple
management platforms and equipment types. When we crack that nut and begin to de-centralize data,
the rewards in terms of efficiency, productivity and profitability will be huge.
There are a few provisos in this future view of inter-connectivity and collaborative technologies,
though, and the biggest one is that we still have a long way to go before rural Canada has
good internet and wireless connectivity that can make all these advances seamless.
Consumers, Traceability & Food Security The foundation of the ag pyramid will always
be the consumer, and trends toward more plant-based diets and toward foods that
are more nutritionally dense and flavourful will strengthen over the next decade. Consumers will
also insist on knowing how their food is raised or grown. Traceability processes that focus on
food production from farm to plate are already well established, and that’s only going to become
more feasible and transparent as digitization and integration of primary agriculture and the
rest of the value chain continues. Food may soon carry a climate-friendly label
and the global food industry will also be more concerned about food security than in the past.
Will there be more mouths to feed? It’s uncertain. Many believe we will see a rapidly
burgeoning world population in 10 years and that agriculture will need to find ways to feed them,
although others suggest fertility rates in many developed countries are already in decline
(in some cases lower than replacement rate) and that the developing world is beginning
to turn that corner too. Markets & Rural Youth
Markets will be more transparent in the future thanks largely to the connectivity that is
bound to provide better access to information about the state of crop production worldwide
and how that reflects at the market and farm level in real time. Farmers already consult their
phones to see a visualization of the markets at that exact moment and compare them against
historical averages and trends. The future will be the same, only a million times more powerful.
It’s also heartening to learn, through speaking with rural development people,
that the rural population isn’t in decline as many people believe — in fact, it’s growing,
just at a slower rate than urban populations. That’s not to say that there aren’t pockets of
rural Canada that are struggling, but others (Morden and Winkler in
south-central Manitoba, for example) are among the fastest-growing communities in the country.
What will prove vital is to make opportunities for young people to stay and work in rural areas,
and to encourage them to pursue careers in agriculture, whether it’s on or off the farm.
Again, a lot of great work is already being done in this area, but some experts feel the
message needs to reach kids earlier about the agricultural possibilities available to them,
especially as technology advances and the industry will be crying out for data management,
communication and IT specialists who can basically work remotely from anywhere.
Whatever the future holds, one thing is certain: agriculture is an industry bursting
with innovation and smart people and it’s going to adapt and help find solutions to economic,
environmental, social and humanitarian dilemmas that face the world, as it always has.
With that, we come to the end of today’s video.
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