What are the major challenges facing modern agriculture?

Farming isn’t easy. A changing climate, regulatory expectations, economic pressures, labor issues, environmental concerns and evolving technologies all combine to make modern-day agriculture extremely challenging. 

Then there is soil erosion, biodiversity loss, resource management, fluctuating consumer tastes, and severe weather events. In addition, the natural world has its own difficulties, including pests and disease which threaten harvests. 

While modern agriculture offers a wide variety of solutions, the outcome is not always guaranteed, in part because every farm is different with its own unique landscape, soil, and potential yields.

Farmers must deal with many problems, including how to: 

Climate change affects farmers’ ability to grow the world’s food in all kinds of ways. For example, increasingly volatile weather and more extreme events – like floods and droughts – lead to agricultural problems. Among these challenges are changes to growing seasons and a reduction in crop productivity.

Unpredictable weather can also limit the availability of water, allow weeds, pests and fungi to thrive, disrupt food supply chains, and impact food security. 

Meanwhile, soil erosion reduces the amount of land available for agriculture, and declining biodiversity affects the pollination of crops. At the same time, farmers are under pressure to conserve water and reduce their agricultural inputs. 

As they adapt to these changes, farmers must also foster more sustainable strategies, including mitigating agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by adopting climate-smart practices – a new learning journey for many growers.

Farmers need to meet the rising demand for more food of higher quality. In recent years, there has been a shift in focus from producing ‘enough food’ to ‘good food’. As an agricultural issue, this has been driven by consumer appetite for healthier  , more sustainable foodstuffs.

For example, mini seedless watermelons have risen in popularity in response to the demand for healthier, easier-to-eat produce. In addition, baby plum tomatoes have become a go-to snack around the world.

In today’s society, farmers are expected to reduce their impact on the environment, increase the nutritional content of crops, and further minimize chemical residues in crops and the environment.

While challenges in agriculture are being addressed – and solved – by modern technologies  such as smart irrigation systems and remote sensing, larger farms with more money to spend are more likely to adopt them. Access, cost and training are all issues for smallholders wanting to invest in AgTech. The digital divide means that smallholders can struggle to implement innovative initiatives in the agricultural digital economy.

The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already being felt in agriculture, with potentially substantial benefits ahead. For those who can access it, AI can empower smallholders with valuable data-driven insights, improved crop management, optimal use of resources, and access to market information.