Farmer Voice survey, conducted on behalf of Bayer, finds 75 per cent of growers are open to innovation to cope with climate change
The 2024 Farmer Voice survey, a study of 2,000 farmers across Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Kenya, Ukraine, and the US, has highlighted some of the challenges, aspirations, and needs of farmers in times of climate change, digitalisation, and economic and political volatility.
Conducted by global market research firm Kynetec on behalf of Bayer, the study found that 75 per cent of farmers were already impacted by climate change or worried about its impact, and 71 per cent of them report reduced yields as a major concern.
Six out of ten had already experienced ”significant revenue loss” due to weather events out of the norm recently.
As part of the solution, farmers were counting on innovation, with 75 per cent open to implementing new technologies to better cope with climate change.
Desire for better yields, resilient farms, and protected livelihoods were driving interest and adoption of more regenerative and technological approaches to farming, the survey revealed.
“The Farmer Voice study underlines that farmers continue to face accelerating economic and environmental challenges in their important work – providing food to the world,” said Rodrigo Santos, member of the board of management at Bayer and president of the crop science division.
”They want innovation to help them do their jobs better, and an environment in which they can increasingly turn towards regenerative practices making food systems more resilient – to the benefit of the planet, food security, and their livelihoods alike.”
Volatility and uncertainty
Farmers’ most prevalent current challenges were driven by volatility and uncertainty, the survey showed. With regards to the next three years, more than one-third reported weather volatility or extreme weather events (37 per cent) and price/income volatility (36 per cent) among their top three challenges.
While these remained stable compared to 2023 findings, this year’s survey revealed a notable increase of political or regulatory decisions as a key concern, with 29 per cent of farmers citing that as a top three challenge, double the amount compared to last year.
This corresponded with the answers given when asked what would most benefit their farm looking ahead. Access to innovations like crop protection (41 per cent) as well as seeds and traits (36 per cent) ranked highly, but farmers also clearly indicated that regulatory and policy changes would benefit their farms in the future, with 36 per cent ranking it as a top three benefit.
Digital technologies
One way to cope with the different kinds of hurdles and make farming more productive lies in digitalisation. Nearly two thirds of farmers already use digital tools, and another 25 per cent plan to in the future.
Principal factors driving digital adoption were economic, with 88 per cent seeing improved crop yields as a motivation to use digital applications, 85 per cent cost savings, and 84 per cent improved crop quality.
Ensuring the longer-term sustainability of farming practices ranks a close fourth place (79 per cent), highlighting farmers’ dedication to land stewardship.
The survey showed that there was a clear digital divide between countries with a higher share of smallholder farmers compared to other markets.
On average, globally 65 per cent of farmers were using digital tools today, versus 49 per cent in China, 42 per cent in Kenya and only 8 per cent in India.
With farmers’ openness towards digital technologies, there comes the willingness to learn, also about AI. While 72 per cent had little knowledge of current AI applications in agriculture, almost two thirds (62 per cent) were interested to learn more.
Soil health and productivity
The role of sustainability in farmers’ motivation to use digital tools underlined the importance of digitalisation in the transition towards a future of regenerative agriculture.
Similar to the motivations for digitalisation, farmers see yield increase and improved productivity among the most important outcomes that regenerative agriculture needs to bring, next to soil health.
“One of the most pressing questions is how we can meet the demands of protecting the planet, producing enough food and making sure that farmers can make a living out of their operations,” said Santos.
“One answer to this lies in the concept of regenerative agriculture,” he continued. ”To us this means increasing food production, farm incomes and resilience in a changing climate while renewing nature. This evolution will require a joint effort of farmers, society and businesses.”
Farmers had already begun that journey, according to the survey. Over 90 per cent of them were using at least one regenerative farming practice in their operations.
The average farmer used almost seven out of a selection of 17 common regenerative farming practices, showing that there was also still a way to go.
The most broadly implemented practices were crop rotation, maintaining soil fertility by adding nutrients, and soil health monitoring.
