Innovations Hoped for in Arable Farming

Innovations in arable farming are in the focus of all stakeholder groups. But do they have enough potential and can they meet the demands placed on them?

The current survey results make it clear that the entire industry sees the greatest hope in innovations in plant breeding, crop protection and fertilizer application - precisely the areas in which politicians are currently and will probably continue to regulate or regulate a great deal. These interventions are both a danger and an opportunity. They lead to a necessary adaptation and promote innovation, but can also massively restrict the latter if a return on investment appears to be at risk due to uncertain framework conditions.

A great deal of hope is pinned on breeding, but this is only part of the solution, partly because politicians are very hesitant about new breeding methods such as CRISPR/Cas, despite increasing pressure from the industry. Politically motivated is probably the hope for innovations in mechanical crop protection. The high approval ratings from the scientific community are interesting here, raising the question of whether there are already new findings whose results have not yet reached the field. Surprisingly, the farmers assigned a significantly lower importance to the improvement of data management. A great deal of clarification is still needed here - if everything works in practice.

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DLG-Agrifuture Insights is the DLG knowledge brand and platform for international trend analyses in the agricultural sector. It examines the business environment in agriculture and agribusiness through a global panel of over 4,000 leading farmers. Every month, Agrifuture Insights publishes a "Chart of the Month" from its extensive range of development trends in international agricultural markets.