20 May 2020
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Will your business operations be the same in 10 years as they are today? Or will you take a completely new direction? The webinar "Knowledge sharing, the key to a successful transition to sustainable agriculture" inspires to think about the development of your agricultural business, by giving insight into the future of agriculture.
The webinar organized by the ZLTO is part of the multi-year project "Knowledge sharing, the key to a successful transition to sustainable agriculture". Inspiration about agriculture in the (near) future is given in the webinar by Drs. Krijn Poppe, connected as an economist to the University of Wageningen.
Vision Agriculture, Nature and Food
Poppe starts his presentation by once again listing the points of Minister Schouten. Nine criteria have been drawn up to reform Dutch agriculture to a circular agriculture. This is not a plan without obstacles, says Krijne. The nine points are sometimes in conflict with each other and at what level will the points be tackled? Per province, or nationally? European or global? The lower the level the higher the costs will be.
Krijn Poppe argues for a focus on soil management. Soil is used intensively by Dutch agriculture and suffers from climate change. Without intervention, the soil will be too depleted to produce in 2040. Not only the environment, but also agriculture is therefore in trouble.
Treadmill
The current problems are the result of the so-called "agricultural treadmill," Poppe explains. Due to increasing prosperity, labor costs are rising. Machines are then invented to take over the work. This initially yields a profit, but the more farmers apply the new technique, the more the price falls, wiping out the profit. And so another innovation is made, which again provides a temporary profit, until that too disappears due to falling prices. The industry takes a step forward, but remains at the bottom of the treadmill. Because of this system of the treadmill, agriculture has a continuous trend toward intensification. This trend was accepted for a long time, but this now seems to be changing.
Three adjustments
Krijn Poppe shares three ways to make adjustments in an agricultural business with an eye to the future:
- differentiation: new choices within existing business operations, for example other products or crops, other sales channels or different marketing. Differentiation is often focused on experience, giving a unique experience (think forgotten vegetables, traditionally prepared, without additives, local product etc.)
- diversification: side activities, such as tourism, care, childcare, energy or contract work
- organization form: changes in things like digitalization, auction or contracts (for example concept homesteaders)
In order for farmers to make a choice, knowledge sharing is key. An online viewer of the webinar asks the question whether it is still possible to survive on the basis of standard agriculture. Poppe's opinion on this is not very positive. He predicts that a maximum of 20% of farmers will be able to continue to do this profitably and then only by increasing scale. For all farmers in the middle group he advises choosing one of the three mentioned adaptations (or settling for less).
Look Back
This was a summary of the webinar given. If you want to watch the full webinar back, and see for example how the participants responded to various questions put to them, click here.