With the release of John Deere’s ‘Farm Forward’-video, the unique vision of John Deere on how agriculture technology could drive increased productivity to feed a growing population is showed to the world. World’s population will increase to more than 9.1 billion in 2050. Growth of the world population goes hand in hand with a growing demand for food. Worldwide food consumption will increase with 55% to 28 trillion kcal per day by 2050 (Didde, R. 2012). To feed the world population in 2050, agriculture productivity needs to increase. John Deere already started to tackle this challenge: “The groundwork for tomorrow’s technology is being laid today” (John Deere n.d.).
Information is power, this the core of John Deere’s future vision. Agricultural information is generated on a daily basis, this information should be captured and used for the advantage of agricultural productivity. John Deere is yet providing farmers instant access to this information by linking their machines to a mobile application (John Deere n.d.). But there is more, with expanding technology in the industry, future is full of new possibilities. Imagine that farmers can turn on their sprinkle pivots from a tap of their smartphone. Imagine crops to be scanned and analysed by a drone, and then automatically be treated with personal needs per unit or section. Imagine connecting crop-trading platforms to quality scans, local wheatear predictions, demand etc. so farmers and buyers know exactly what they are dealing with at the time of harvesting. These examples of machine automation, analytics-based insights, anywhere management, and connect support is what the agricultural future will look like according to John Deere. John Deere is visioning to feed 9 billion people in 2050 by Big-Data driven new technologies.
Now we know how the world’s largest farm machinery manufacturer is visioning to feed our population in 2050 (Statista n.d.), it leaves us with a few questions. How near are the ‘Farm Forward’ predictions? Where could agriculture be in the next 5, 10, or 20 years? Is it possible to feed 9 billion people in 2050? Is John Deere pointing in the right direction with their ‘Farm Forward’ vision?
References
- Didde, R (2012) “Nine Billion People to Feed: Producing Food for a Growing World Population,” Wageningen world: magazine of Wageningen and KLV about contributing to the quality of life (4): 10 – 17. Accessed on 20 September 2019 on http://edepot.wur.nl/454211.
- John Deere (n.d.) ‘Farm Forward’, John Deere Accessed on 21 September 2019 on https://www.deere.com/en/campaigns/ag-turf/farm-forward/?cid=VURL_FarmForward
- Statista (n.d.) ‘John Deere statistics and facts’, Statista Accessed on 21 September 2019 on https://www.statista.com/topics/2724/john-deere/
I really like the article and by seeing the video John Deere is making great steps to maximize the efficiency and quality of farming in general. Looking at the question you posed: “Is John Deere pointing in the right direction with their ‘Farm Forward’ vision?” I think they are pointing in the right direction. However, there is maybe a more important question to think of. Will John Deere be able to share this technology with other brands or maybe even governments? John Deere is known as one of the best but also most expensive brands in the market. If John Deere chooses to keep this technology in the company a majority of the farmers will not be able to afford this. So to my opinion John Deere is moving into the right direction to keep up with the rising demand of food if they are willing to either share the technology or sell it for a more affordable price.
Interesting focal subject! John Deere’s proposition to integrate machine automation, analytics and other IT-based tools in the context of agriculture is a promising endeavour to feed the increasing population of the world. Most solutions to ensure sustainable production and consumption involves the act of reducing something. For instance, reducing the total food produced to limit food waste or reducing the material footprint. Despite these being very valid and relevant solutions, “Farm Forward” takes into the definite fact that the population will continue to grow, hence more mouths to feed. The added value additionally stems from being able to control equipment and monitor data from mobile devices to fit the current lifestyle. I truly believe that Deere is headed the right direction with “Farm Forward” and hope that both existing and new organizations will similarly adopt this model.
Dear Joep, very interesting blog you wrote here, subject-wise and actual with all the commotion with farmers in the Netherlands. I also believe that transferring offline knowledge into online data is a tactful strategy to innovate farming. Hereby, the agriculture could be designed more innovative as efficient. Efficiency is, like you said, very important since the human race is expanding with a record speed. To feed everyone, all companies, large and small, should indeed incorporate their new solutions to feed everyone.