High-tech agriculture: Farmers risk being 'locked in' to unsustainable practices

Since World War II, Europe's agricultural sector has been very receptive to new technology, and the result has been staggering productivity gains – for four generations, farmers have produced more than their parents did. At the same time, however, agricultural prices have fallen around the world and price subsidies have been cut. This has led to a cruel paradox: while farmers have never produced so much, many can no longer make a living from farming.

The principle of pesticide-free agriculture must be at the heart of this future, digitally supported agricultural system. Simply characterizing the performance of agriculture as one of a production system supported by pesticides will not deliver sustainability. Measures of system performance based on a single economic criterion do not reflect all the other dimensions of sustainability. Instead, digital technology must deliver a transition to a holistic appreciation of agriculture. It will allow us to appreciate aspects of the system that we know are critical but, due to poor measurement or recognition, we only notice once they are gone. Pollination by wild insects is an example of something farmers have, to date, received for free and so have undervalued. It is only now that we are discovering that these insects are in decline there are no longer enough to meet our needs.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-03-high-tech-agriculture-farmers-tounsustainable.html#jCp

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