Farm of the Future
Innovation and technology will play a critical role in the future of food systems globally, providing significant opportunities for supporting farmer and supply chain resilience and productivity, addressing climate change, reducing the impact of agriculture on nature, and contributing to a more equitable distribution of value. To make sure the growth of these technologies can lead to the expected benefits for farmers and the agricultural systems they manage, there is urgent need to collaborate between businesses, farmers, and national and international decision-makers, to address challenges in ensuring sustainable and equitable access. The Farm of the Future workstream aims to create the necessary global and regional platforms to facilitate this collaboration.
The Challenge
The positive impact new technologies and innovation can have on farmer resilience remains fragmented and untapped. There is not yet sufficient technology and innovation which can support a strong business case at scale. Emerging solutions are often not accompanied by the necessary enabling environment and by the right focus on end-users.
The Business Case
The private sector has a critical role to play in facilitating the development and implementation of technologies and innovations that reduce agriculture’s climate and nature footprint, provide farmer equity, and build a more resilient system which can withstand climate change and other systemic shocks. The market opportunities are also strong – for example, 90% of the market for digital services that support African smallholder farmers remains untapped; and agri-weather advisory services have the potential to yield benefits worth over US$ 430 billion for India’s 90 million agricultural households.
The Business Solution
Through the development of a global knowledge-sharing platform and the facilitation of regional coalitions in critical geographies, including India, the US and West Africa, Farm of the Future brings together business, groups of producers and key decision-makers to address existing challenges, scale initiatives, identify co-financing and co-investment opportunities, and align critical positions to establish the right enabling environment for on-farm technologies and innovations.