Farmers are open to innovation to cope with climate change
Higher yield potential is driving adoption of digital farming, with two thirds of the famers using digital tools already and the same amount wanting to learn more about AI. This is one of the key findings from the 2024 Farmer Voice survey, a study among 2,000 farmers across Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Kenya, Ukraine, and the United States, conducted by global market research firm Kynetec on behalf of Bayer.
75 percent of farmers are already impacted by climate change or worried about its impacts, and 71 percent of them report reduced yields as a major concern. 6 out of 10 have already experienced significant revenue loss due to weather events out of the norm recently. As part of the solution, farmers count on innovation: 75 percent are open to implementing new technologies to better cope with climate change. Desire for better yields, resilient farms, and protected livelihoods are driving interest and adoption of more regenerative and technological approaches to farming.
Farmers’ most prevalent current challenges are driven by volatility and uncertainty. With regard to the next 3 years, more than a third reported weather volatility or extreme weather events (37%) and price/income volatility (36%) among their top-3 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 percent of farmers citing that as a top-3 challenge, double the amount compared to last year.
Farmers use digital technologies
One way to cope with the different kinds of hurdles and make farming more productive lies in digitalization. Nearly two thirds of farmers already use digital tools, and another 25 percent plan to in the future. Farmers around the world are using digital tools for a range of diverse applications like forecasting, optimizing farm decisions, or precision application. Principal factors driving digital adoption are economic: 88 percent see improved crop yields as a motivation to use digital applications, 85 percent cost savings, and 84 percent improved crop quality. Ensuring the longer-term sustainability of farming practices ranks a close fourth place (79%), highlighting farmers’ dedication to land stewardship.
But there is a clear digital divide between countries with a higher share of smallholder farmers compared to other markets. On average, globally 65 percent of farmers are using digital tools today, versus 49 percent in China, 42 percent in Kenya and only 8 percent in India. However, farmers in these countries plan to implement more digital tools in the future (China: 27%, Kenya: 42%, India: 85%). And with farmers’ openness towards digital technologies, there comes the willingness to learn, also about AI. While 72 percent have little knowledge of current AI applications in agriculture, almost two thirds (62%) are interested to learn more.
Farmers harness regenerative practices
The role of sustainability in farmers’ motivation to use digital tools underlines the importance of digitalization in the transition towards a future of regenerative agriculture. Similar to the motivations for digitalization, farmers see yield increase and improved productivity among the most important outcomes that regenerative agriculture needs to bring, next to soil health.
And farmers have already begun that journey. Over 90 percent of them are using at least one regenerative farming practice in their operations. The average farmer uses almost seven out of a selection of 17 common regenerative farming practices, showing that there is also still a way to go. The most broadly implemented practices are crop rotation, maintaining soil fertility by adding nutrients, and soil health monitoring.
