How COVID-19 Is Changing the Way We Do Business in Ag Retail
All over the U.S. we’re currently experiencing the impact of the second COVID-19 wave, writes Ryan Humpert at CropLife. We knew this second wave was to be expected, and we had a fair idea it was going to come this fall to coincide with the regular flu season, but I think nobody knew how hard it would hit; especially in rural areas. Where the first wave predominantly struck in big cities such as New York, we’re now seeing COVID-19 impacting agricultural retailers, agronomists, growers, and many others who live in the small towns that make up rural America.
It seems like vaccination will become an option in the near future, but the complete rollout of that program is not expected to be seen until the middle of 2021. However, even when vaccination will start to lower the impact of COVID-19, some of the effects of this pandemic on how we work, live, and interact with each other are likely to last much longer than the pandemic itself. I thought it useful to list some of the effects we’re likely to experience in ag retail and agronomy in the short, medium, and long term in order to start some discussion around possible post-Covid outcomes.
Short-Term COVID-19 Effect on Ag Retail
Right now, remote working is key for those people in ag retail who don’t physically need to be present in their branch, such as agronomists. In order to isolate people from each other as much as possible and prevent the spread of COVID-19, not having key staff members physically close to each other is important. Most ag retailers cannot afford to lose all their agronomists for a period of time because they were all exposed to the virus at the same time. Luckily, the majority of an agronomist’s work is in the field anyway, where they don’t need to be anywhere close to other people.
When I spoke to one of our clients this week, IT Director Andrew Gladden with Luckey Farmers Cooperative, he told me that this is exactly what they are doing: “All our agronomists are working remotely, and they’ll keep doing that as long as needed for their own, and other people’s safety. We’re very thankful that we have collaborative digital platform fully implemented in our organization so that our agronomists don’t have to go into the branch at all, nor do they need to be face-to-face with growers; all communication is currently conducted through digital means and we’re not seeing this create any problems or delays.”
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