In the 21st century, agriculture is facing major challenges: the rural labor force is declining, urbanisation is expected to accelerate, and the population is growing and will reach more than 9 bilion people around 2050. These trends indicate that market demand will continue to grow and the current food supply will not be enough. And although undernutrition is already an issue in todays world, it will only be more severe in the upcoming 30 years.
Feeding over 9 bilion people in 2050 would require to increase overall food production by 70 percent in 2050 compared to 2005. But how can we achieve this?
Investment in new land to be converted into agricultural production production will not be enough. The agricultural industry needs to be transformed (again) to make it more efficient, productive and sustainable. In recent years we see the emergence of weed-killing robots that intelligently can pluck individual weeds to reduce reliance on herbicides. In the Netherlands, mini-drones are already killing flying insects. In the United states, a few startups are in a race to create lab-grown meat. And innovators are already thinking about and creating ‘robobees’ to deal with the ‘beepocalypse’. 
The question is thus not whether we are going make it in 2050 and be able to serve all the 9 bilion hungry mouths. The question is how crazy innovative we are to get there?
