Smart Farming and the Transition to Regenerative Ag: Why Are EU Farmers Struggling With Climate Cognitive Dissonance?
Editor’s note: Kynetec’s recent Farmer Engagement Survey shows that while EU farmers understand the biggest risks to their farms in the mid-term, they aren’t using readily available tools to manage these threats. Is it surprising that farmers recognize the practical work that needs to be done on-farm to manage the effect of climate change, but are unsure on how to make long-term management progress using the vast amount of information available?
Climate change and governmental policy are cited by farmers in three European countries as the biggest risk to their businesses, according to the recent Farmer Engagement survey of 1,539 farmers across the UK, Germany, and France by Kynetec. Farms surveyed were a mix of conventional, conventional organic mixed and organic, growing livestock, arable and specialty crops – but regardless of business model, farmers were consistent in their responses.
Farmers know about regenerative practices and smart farming tools that might help them manage their businesses better over the mid- to long-term, but crucially, very few are taking the step to engage with the transition to on-farm. For example, while 54% of the total surveyed famers considered themselves aware, or even very familiar, with carbon credit programs, 96% were not participating in such a program.
Ask anyone how climate change could affect agriculture, and the answer is typically rising temperatures and more extreme weather patterns. That is true, but when you dive down into the detail, climate change is a fundamental risk to food security on a global scale, as well as a risk to the survival of individual farm businesses. Farmers already mitigating against changing rain patterns leading to flooding and droughts, warmer seasons increasing irrigation requirements and increasing incidence of disease in both plants and animals — requiring further chemical or medicinal inputs to achieve yield.
Smart farming use in less than half of farms
While a small number of farmers believe their farm will not be affected by climate change, 66% of farmers surveyed agreed that climate change and extreme weather is already impacting their future plans for their farm business. Interestingly, the cognitive dissonance between the understanding of climate impact, versus using the management steps readily available is clear. 48% of the same farmers don’t use smart farming applications on their farms, and of those farmers not using tech, 71% don’t have an implementation plan over the next two years.
Smart farming offers growers the opportunity to be on the front foot when it comes to farm management. It builds on the experience of the farmer, the well-respected gut instinct often built up over generations, and adds a layer of record keeping, ease, and technology. Specifically, smart farming allows users to save money, optimize use of inputs, increase productivity, manage livestock and veterinary medicines, and precision planting and spraying among a myriad of life-simplifying management tools.
So why aren’t farmers glued to their iPhones, and saving money by using these simple-to-navigate apps? The complexity of the number of improvements to be made, among a whole toolbox of marginal gains required to achieve a 180-degree flip in approach from conventional to regenerative ag is a big ask of farming businesses, traditionally family-run, lone workers, with farmers typically in their 50’s.
That said, specific elements of smart farming have been identified as gaining traction in specific markets. In France, soil scanning is the most used application at 56% of farmers. In Germany, satellite imagery for crop management attracts 22% of users, with 19% also using precision application functions. The UK has lower overall rates of smart farming; with typical use of machine-based tech already supplied with the tractor or implement, such as yield mapping on combine harvesters, and variable rate nutrient application in sprayers.
Policy is driving positive on-farm change
In the UK, governmental policy shift away from the BPS payments based on eligible agricultural hectarage and into ELMs is resulting in a demonstrable shift in behavior, with 69% agreeing that these “public money for public good” policies will impact farm businesses. As the transition away from BPS payments phases out until 2028 when the money stops altogether, farmers have engaged with newer schemes that focus on one of two things: growing more and better food; or focusing on environmental benefit.
Changes in crop management through licensing actives, and outlining spraying practices are also strongly driven by regulation. Looking at a high level, it is possible for the wider agribusiness industry to monitor these changes in line with farmer behavior driven by policy changes using tools such as Kynetec’s MachineryTrak, a data and analytics platform that ties together detailed machinery use with expenditure by crop type and protection category, demonstrably allowing agribusinesses to monitor the changing landscape of farm needs.
Regenerative farming: mega trend or essential transition?
CSS, Countryside Stewardship Schemes, encourage the use of regenerative practices and pay per hectare for use of cover cropping, low input grassland, herbal ley mixes and overwinter bird feed among others. This increase in focus on biodiversity, targeted use of applications as well as integrating livestock into arable rotations has sped up the implementation of regenerative practice, as the BPS deadline looms.
Wider empirical data can be gleaned from tools like MachineryTrak, which is already showing how farmers are changing their approach to soil management through machinery purchases, type and usage over time. As the focus on smaller, lighter tractors becomes apparent to reduce soil impaction on mid-sized farms, larger arable set ups are still focused on big machines to allow growers to harvest as quickly as possible when weather conditions allow. As weather patterns continue to change, it will be interesting to see if analytics reports back a divergence of farms into two camps: one regen based with lighter kit aimed at reducing soil disruption, and one conventional focused producing lots of food when the weather allows for harvesting at appropriate moisture levels.
For more information on accessing farm-level insights, contact Belén Valverde, Kynetec’s
Global Customer Insight Practice Leader, at [email protected].
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