The future of farming will have a platform approach
Shalini Verma
Filed on April 26, 2021
Our burgeoning population will not stop eating anytime soon. So, agriculture boasts of an endless supply of customers that even the likes of Facebook cannot have.
Agriculture is one of the oldest economic activities. Historians believe that wheat grew as wild grass in the fertile crescent of the Middle East before it was cultivated there in 9500 BC. Similarly other areas started to independently grow rice, banana and maize. Despite centuries of grueling human effort, we haven’t solved the problem of food.
Our burgeoning population will not stop eating anytime soon. So, agriculture boasts of an endless supply of customers that even the likes of Facebook cannot have. Yet agriculture is far from lucrative. In the EU, farm income is less than half the average wage. An average farmer in India earns about US$1,000 annually despite the fact that India ranks #2 in farm produce. Even cash crops fail to help farmers. Despite the rising lifestyle demand for coffee, profitability for coffee plantations has been a challenge. 1 in every 4 employed persons in the world is a farmer, of which 60 per cent are in the low-income bracket. Agriculture holds the key to poverty alleviation, food security and climate protection.