As the world's population grows, farmers will be tasked with feeding 10 billion people by 2055. This means producing 70% more food than is grown today, with higher production costs and depleted natural resources. As you look behind me, seeing our corn sitting here, within the next week, this corn will be harvested. Meanwhile, farmers face income gaps, market concentration, and the inability to control prices, impacting profitability and sustainability. And since consumers care about their products being sourced and grown sustainably too, There is a pressure from retailers, and there is pressure from individuals like us, consumers. The industry needs to embrace sustainability across the value chain. It's been a lot of investment on time, research, money. So how do we build a sustainable agricultural future that's profitable for farmers and agribusinesses? This is P.S.'s guide to sustainable, profitable agriculture.
To build a sustainable future that works for agribusinesses, farmers, and consumers, agribusinesses really need to understand the farmers they buy from. And what better way to understand a farmer than, well, talking to one? Susan Brocksmith runs a farm in Vincennes, Indiana that was an early adopter of sustainable farming practices.
We were early into the game, back in the 70s and 80s, but as we moved forward, it started catching on more and more in the ag industries. More and more, people want sustainably sourced food products, and there's data to back it up. A 2022 survey found that more than half of consumers say they are willing to pay up to a 40% price increase premium for sustainably produced goods. But in order to slap a sustainable sticker onto a product, companies need to be sure those products were actually sourced sustainably and meet regulations. They need farmers to be able to track things like water use, land use, and carbon emissions. And Susan sees the benefits of sustainable farming, not just for the businesses she sells to, but for her own farm. Some of the benefits of implementing sustainable farming on our land has been less erosion, decrease of needing that big capital outlay for tractors and some of the tillage equipment, as well as just looking at that value added of our soils are healthier, they're more resilient, we don't have to worry about variation in our yields as much as we did beforehand.
Emerging tech can help with this, including artificial intelligence programs that tell farmers where and when to plant and harvest crops, and data transparency tools that streamline and offer insights into the information farmers collect. But some farmers are hesitant to adopt new technologies, which makes sense because there's always risk involved.
You ask about sustainability, it comes at a true management. It wasn't easy, it wasn't just a you did it one year and you never had any more problems again. It took us a long time of adjusting.
To maximize benefits, agribusinesses can help growers with solutions that alleviate risk, not add to it. One of the things which has just started happening is this whole understanding the voice of the farmer. Shailesh Yoshi is part of the energy and commodities vertical at Publisys Sapient.
A lot of these companies that have come up build solutions which are probably not fit for purpose and a lot of these big organizations where they have built various farmers platform but the adoption has been sort of very, very, very low. It doesn't need to be this way because farmers and agribusinesses all benefit from operating efficiently and sustainably. The issue is how we get there in a way that works for everyone. For one of our clients where we were looking at the sustainable practices, they wanted farmers to update some data and they had certain tools and they were just not working. And the reason they were not working was because they were built by somebody who was sitting with a React front end on an iPad, not somebody who's using in a rural or a low bandwidth area. So then we gave them some suggestions in terms of how they can manage that. For example, they could have simple APIs which took out a very low footprint and then farmers don't really need a lot of screens and other things. So they should be able to kind of still use simple apps on their mobile phone and should be able to upload that data.
Another key part of this is making the technology useful to farmers too, not just the agribusinesses, so they're more willing to use and learn new technologies.
On our farm, we've had to learn how to use technology so that we can be better on our farm. There's a lot of software out here where on our phones, we can actually see the combine going back and forth and see our yields instantaneously. The amount of information we get today is so helpful as we are looking at management. Again, that's one of the keys. Management on our farms is the best thing we can do to ensure our soils are as healthy as possible. Come on into our shop. This is our decision center for our farm. Come on in and let's see what we got in here. My husband does a great job because he keeps track of the moisture that we get each month so we know how our crops and its potential that we can have as well as records on what needs to have maintenance put on it, when it's done. These maps that you see here are looking at the different types of soil types we have because as we make management decisions, we look at the soil types so we can match varieties, we can talk about how the nutrient values and what we do on those. Here's also looking at what we call wascobs, how we do drainage in our fields to make sure that we get the most that we can from our soils and help them drain but not lose soil and help with soil erosion with it. It's hard to learn, but all those technologies make us better farmers.
That's where sort of the value exchange comes, right? Because if you're collecting the data and you're only getting it for your purpose, then the farmer would be like, okay, so what is in it for me? So I think you need to find that saying, hey, this data you would be able to use now to probably save X amount of money because now you could potentially use 30%, 40% on your irrigation or your water consumption.
I wish companies would know about farmers that we care. We want this. This is our passion. This is our livelihood. And there's nobody else. We want to be the best that we can be for future generations and to know that we want our products to be the best that they can get also so that they can meet the consumer's needs.
In the quest to feed a growing planet, sustainable agriculture and farmer-centric solutions aren't just choices, they're imperatives. By working together and embracing change, we can cultivate a better, profitable future.