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In the farming world, prices of commodities remain extremely strong. Even
with high input prices for energy and fertilizers, farmers in the arable crops
have largely had a good income and profit. On a global scale we notice a
steady increase in production for the large food commodities such as rice,
wheat, corn and soy, but this is hardly able to keep up with the increased
demand. Strategic inventories are dropping for the fourth year in a row,
challenging farmers to produce more for an ever-growing population that
demands more and more food.
Crop Protection products play a vital part in securing and improving
land productivity to enable production of more food, feed and fuel. We
realise that the shift from chemical to biological crop protection is in full
progress; our belief is that future sustainable crop protection will depend
on the combination of modern chemical and biological products used in
combination within the crop and even as combined or ‘hybrid’ applications’.
The lengthy and expensive regulatory approval process for both chemical
and now more and more biological Crop Protection does not support the
needed innovation. The lack of an adapted and specific framework and
expert structure for alternative Crop Protection solutions is slowing down
introduction of new solutions for farmers. Good and well organized research
is happening in both the public and private sectors with many promising
and exciting discoveries including micro-organisms, plant and microbial
extracts.
At the same time digital technology and precision application equipment
is progressing like never before opening a clear path for novel application
systems coupled to more reliable predictive risk models of when, where
and how much to apply which may also help improve the reliability of
biological products traditionally seen as more difficult to use. With more
volatile weather due to climate change, our global food system needs the
necessary buffer capacity to cope with the variability of the output. Scientific
progress towards more sustainable and more productive growing systems
will be crucial in the coming decades.
A challenging farming environment
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