Reforming the Agriculture System for Sustainability – Insights from WIA Europe Summit
Our team recently attended the Women in AgriBusiness Summit Europe, a fully virtual conference with a brilliant and an inspiring lineup of women leaders, entrepreneurs and members of the agribusiness community, who discussed industry innovations, trends and vision for the future.
Here are our key takeaways from the conference.
1. Sustainability of the Food System and Climate Change
Mayneris, 2020
According to Sustainanlytics, a company that rates the sustainability of listed companies, and Vanessa Mayneris from Plan, a food consulting firm; sustainability still remains a priority on the consumer’s mind despite the hygiene concerns raised by COVID-19 and demand for environmentally-sustainable products that support environmental sustainability is growing.
Thanks to digital tools, sustainable agriculture is within the reach of farmers. Digital agriculture has helped farmers to improve their economic profitability as well as their performance in environmental health and social equity.
More and more young Europeans are getting into farming, not because it’s their family business but because they want to be close to nature and do good for nature. According to Mary Shelman, thought leader and former director of Harvard Business School’s Agribusiness program, the sustainability of farms will increasingly rely on new knowledge of crop and soil health and the new generation of farmers who want to leave a positive impact on the planet.
The agricultural industry is unique in that it has the ability to both emit and sink greenhouse gases. In combination with current customer demand and technological innovation, there are now therefore ample opportunities for farmers and agribusinesses to be at the forefront of the climate change revolution.
“20 years from now, farmers will have chosen to be farmers regardless of whether there was a farm in their family. Farmers will be well-paid and get better margins on their products. There will be five additional categories between standard and organic produce, each category closer to organic indicating a more environmentally-friendly farming process and supply chain. Farmers will be rewarded for sustainable practices without having to go fully organic. ”
At Deep Planet, we support farmers and agribusinesses by providing new and unbiased perspectives of farms and helping to measure and reduce environmental effects through optimising crop input, improving soil health, monitoring biodiversity, and estimating future changes.
2. Farming 4.0 Revolution
Big Data, sensors, intelligent machinery and IOT devices form Farming 4.0. Digitization of agriculture is here, but it comes with new complexities for farmers and suppliers. Farmer adoption is heavily influenced by the ease of use and accessibility of these new technologies.
According to CapAgro, a European VC dedicated to AgTech, real needs have to be addressed and this can only happen by working with the farmers and helping them see and touch the benefits that technology can bring. Deep Planet’s approach has been to work with small and large-sized farms and growers to co-develop our products. Over the last two years, we have adapted our products to answer the needs of our clients and this evolution is ongoing.
“20 years from now, a supply chain manager will have a role like that of an orchestra conductor. Every instrument and player in their orchestra will be valued because of their contribution to the whole. Supply chain managers will have broad and deep knowledge about how to get the best from their suppliers through information exchange and financial incentives. Relationships between managers and suppliers will be long-term and based on trust, not transactions.”
The next big challenge that Agriculture 4.0 brings is access to data, privacy concerns and related regulations. Collaborative data sharing can be mutually beneficial for the growers, helping them not only understand their individual farm performance but to benchmark themselves against regional trends in health, pest and diseases, and yield outlooks. At Deep Planet, we develop our models in a collaborative and innovative fashion with our clients. The more data that farmers are willing to share, the greater the accuracy with which our models can provide, which benefits farmers even further.
3. Food System of the Future and Traceability
EU Farm to Fork Strategy
COVID-19 has exposed issues that our food system faces, in particular the lack of resiliency and robustness of the supply chain. Food systems cannot be resilient to crisis if they are not sustainable.
The European Union’s Farm to Fork Strategy aims to make food systems fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly. There is a huge gap between farmers, who often lack a sustainable income, and the changing habits and needs of consumers.
The pandemic has accelerated consumer awareness, with people becoming more aware of the origin of their food and its impact on the planet. Consumers are demanding more transparency in the supply chain. The outlook for sustainability and traceability in agricultural produce is expected to continue to grow post-COVID. Ensuring the traceability of good quality food and produce will be key.
Deep Planet is working to support such a food system of the future and transparency in the supply chain by tracking produce to its origins and throwing light on the environmental impact of sustainable farming practices on farms.
4. Diversity and Inclusion for Sustainability
It would be incomplete if, as a women-led business, we at Deep Planet did not discuss the inclusion and diversity (I&D) topics from this conference. It was refreshing to hear the steps that large agribusinesses, such as Corteva Agrisciences and Cargill, are taking to embrace inclusion and diversity. They consider I&D core to their strategy of innovation and sustainability – something that is both non-negotiable and a top priority.
There were two interesting approaches, a top-down and a bottom-up approach. Corteva calls on volunteers who are passionate about inclusion to lead key company initiatives and let the drive for I&D waterfall through the organization. Passionate individuals with personal connections to I&D are specifically chosen as future leaders so seeds are sown at an early stage. Cargill has propagated I&D in their company through small steps, such as starting each meeting with topics of I&D, ensuring inclusion is factored in the interview process both with a balanced mix of interviewees and the interviewer panel, and ensuring the company is adapting its I&D strategy for each region and culture.
Overall, it was an insightful conference, with leading ladies in the agribusiness industry setting the scene for the future of the farming and agricultural sector – in terms of both what we can expect immediately after the pandemic as well as in the next few years.
At Deep Planet, we are happy to support the agricultural system that is transforming itself for a more sustainable future. If you’d like to hear more about our technologies, collaborate with us, or sit on our customer council, we’d love to talk with you.