People, Planet, Products.

There are many headwinds facing global agriculture. Climate change, inflation, the lingering impacts of COVID, breakdown of supply chains, soaring energy prices, changing consumer expectations. It’s a lot to take in. Even more so for the average family farm focusing on producing their crops. How do these growers embrace challenges and find the opportunities in a rapidly changing global market for protected cropping.

People

First and foremost, the future of agriculture will revolve around people. Attracting and retaining talent in agricultural business is a challenge at the best of times, but in the global labour market, competition for people is fierce. In the near future, competition for people will be the production bottle neck for some systems, over and above growing challenges. This is already happening in the highly labour intensive fruit industries like apples, summerfruit, and citrus. People are certainly more interested in where their food comes from, but they aren’t flocking to work on farm. For protected cropping systems, the challenge is to attract entry level workers, but also, and more challengingly, technically skilled growers. Automation and robotics are coming, and it will undoubtedly revolutionise protected cropping, but will present a new labour problem. Broad adoption of automation will require highly technically, and agronomically proficient industry professionals to install, manage and service more and more technical automated systems. These people do not grow on trees. Either way, agricultural development around the world is going to be hamstrung by the lack of qualified, competent, passionate agriculturalists. For farmers, this will likely mean that whoever can attract, train and retain talent will have a competitive edge.

Planet

Like anything, the planet has a say. The effects of climate change are being felt broadly and deeply. The characteristics of a warming system are here. Traditionally reliable climate systems are failing more frequently, reducing the viability of traditional growing regions. The affect that this has on our food systems is significant. Increasingly hostile environments and decreasing food security, decreasing water availability, and reducing our ability to feed the planet with nutritious food. The UN and FAO have been very clear that we are not likely to hit our sustainable development goals of zero hunger by 2030. As the world responds to the looming climate crisis, there will be more regulatory burden on growers to benchmark and report on their environmental impact. This will be driven by supply chains, corporates and consumers demanding decarbonised production systems. For protected cropping growers, this means more paperwork, but it is also an opportunity to differentiate their products in the market and build brand loyalty around environmental stewardship and resource use efficiency.

Products

As consumer purchasing decisions shift, so too will the food products. Following the COVID pandemic, there is an acceleration in consumers preference for health or functional foods, however this is only half the story, and unfortunately one that splits along socio-economic grounds. As the rich who can afford the more expensive and healthier produce increase their consumption of nutritious foods, those who are struggling are reaching for more quick, convenient meals to feed their families.

New product development will be important into the future to help growers target consumers with products that are a better market fit. This will include better packaging, better shelf life, different crops, and novel ingredients. This is where genetics and advanced plant breeding can help to design a better product fit for everyone in the supply chain.

As the world changes and adapts to a dynamic marketplace, consumers have never had more power over the future of our food systems. If consumers so choose, we will see a food system that better supports people, supports the environment, and provides us nutrition for all.

Protected cropping systems are at the heart of any future food production model due to their efficiency and reliability. The responsibility on the PC industry is to facilitate the adoption of suitable production systems, and support PC growers to do their jobs productively and profitably.

-ST