Many of the world’s leading industries have been severely disrupted this year as governments across the globe attempt to stop the spread of Covid-19. Industries such as sporting events, restaurants, education, and tourism have been impacted the most, but there are a few that have been deemed essential to everyday life, including food manufacturing, and farming.  There has never been a better time to become an agripreneur!

The current economic climate, combined with the global trends of a rural to urban migration wave, a hungrier world, a wealthier world, choosy customers and transformative technology make for a ripe mix in the Agriculture arena.  There is huge potential for productivity growth – driven by technology, robotics, automation, precision agriculture and big data collection.  Innovation is a real buzz word at the moment, but that is rightly so and the challenge for global agriculture is how best to be involved in this ‘knowledge revolution’.  

65% of kids in school today will work in jobs in the future that currently don’t exist. Rural communities around the world need entrepreneurs who will combat the ‘brain drain of losing young people to cities’ and build global businesses from their bedrooms, creating jobs and boosting rural economies.  Innovation is about putting ideas and knowledge to good use.  We need to look beyond our individual countries’ borders for innovation and inspiration in agriculture so as not to run the risk of re-inventing the wheel.  Each nation has a piece of the puzzle required to ensure the sustainability and success of food manufacturing and farming into the  future.

Equally important is the fact that we will have to take our consumers on this agri innovation journey with us to ensure they are informed of the benefits of increased quality, less waste and enriched sustainability due to innovations in their food and fibre production.

We need to visualize a future world where the food manufacturing and farming industries are robust, innovative, successful, well funded, abundant, affordable, and healthy. Our challenge as Future Agro Challenge ecosystem builders, is to figure out how, specifically, this future can come to fruition?

The answer I believe is that current farmers and agripreneurs must commit and get highly involved in the agrifood tech industries.  They must collaborate with each other, converse with consumers and most definitely embrace being creative.

The food system we leave for future generations of children around the globe, will be determined by the farmers and agripreneurs who get started on turning their ideas into reality, today.