This week’s famer revolts in the UK follow those earlier this year in other parts of Europe as well as India. While the specific triggers have differed from country to country, these global protests reflect farmers' discontent with various agricultural policies, climate change regulations, economic pressures, and trade issues affecting their livelihoods.
What lessons can be drawn for the agtech sector?
Farmer margins are “getting squeezed from top and bottom,” says professor Tim Benton, a distinguished fellow in the Environment and Society Programme at Chatham House, a UK thinktank.
The current protests from British farmers are down to proposed changes to inheritance tax laws that they believe will devastate family farms and threaten food production.
Some believe the new inheritance rules will only impact a small number of very rich landlords who have bought UK farms to benefit from a tax break designed to ensure farms can pass from one generation to the next, in doing so causing farm values to spike. Indeed, the government claims 500 farms per year will be impacted. There’s a chance, therefore, that clamping down on the practice could lower land prices and encourage a younger, more tech-savvy, generation to enter farming.
But farmer groups dispute the government figures. They anticipate far greater numbers will be caught in the crosshairs of the tax.
It’s therefore argued that farmers cannot go green if they are in the red, and that the latest tax changes are just another action preventing the likelihood of them being able to invest in the machinery, technology and innovation to boost food security.
“Increasingly it is going to lead to only the biggest farms being able to survive,” warns Benton. And it’s a global problem. For him, the protests in London are just another expression of the revolts that have happened of late across Europe, India and other parts of the world.
For years, the cost of food production has exceeded the price farmers receive at the farmgate. Farmers struggle with price competition, the regulatory cost of adopting more sustainable practices, plus the adaptation necessary to deal with changing climates. They are simply not making enough money from growing their goods. “Fundamentally there is just not enough money to support the traditional farming sector in the world that we’re moving increasingly moving into,” says Benton.
It’s easier to squeeze farmers than consumers
The glaring problem, as he sees it, is that ultimately no-one pays enough for food. It’s a contentious issue, but Benton argues that food prices must be realigned to reflect the “true cost of food” to create a more sustainable and healthy food system.
“I think ultimately that food prices are too cheap, and we have to do more to support farmers and de-risk farmers from the costs of not being able to invest in their land in the way that they need to,” he says.
We are in an “invidious” place, he adds, where farmers are “getting caught left, right and centre because costs are going up and risks are going up and no one is sharing those risks or those costs.”
But another sad fact is that if you’re a government it’s easier to squeeze farmers than it is consumers. “No one in the political class is leading the debate to say we need to do things differently,” complains Benton. “We’re sticking with business as usual, and farmers are caught in the centre. It makes it really difficult for them to look ahead with any degree of economic confidence.”
Attitudinal change is needed
According to Benton, attitudinal change is needed. “Until we, as citizens, are willing to accept that the future is going to be more difficult and we can’t carry on as we are and we’re going to have to pay more for things, then the system becomes more fragile and eventually it will break.”
Change may come, reckons Benton. But until it does, the onus is on the agri-tech sector to navigate the complex challenges faced by farmers globally. That means clearer ROI, lower cost of implementation and maintenance, and easier to setup technologies.
Phil Bicknell, CEO at the UK Agri-Tech Centre, agrees. To succeed, he stresses, innovators “must clearly define the problems their products address, ensuring that they perform reliably and deliver measurable returns on investment”.
He is also optimistic that in this dynamic environment, technology and innovation can play a vital role in enhancing business resilience. “And we are committed to maximising the opportunities they offer.”