Since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic in early 2020, businesses big and small have faced significant challenges. Though the pandemic has ended, many sectors, including the agricultural industry, are facing familiar and unfamiliar challenges.
Though it’s obvious that modern agriculture is vital to feeding a global population that was greater than eight billion people at the dawn of 2024, the United Nations notes that agriculture also boosts prosperity and economies by providing jobs. That reality only underscores the notion that the challenges facing the agricultural sector are facing everyone, even those whose livelihoods are not directly linked to the industry. According to Earth.org, an organization that offers environmental news, data analysis, research, and policy solutions, the following are three sizable challenges facing modern agriculture.
1. Climate change: Perhaps no challenge is greater for humanity in the twenty-first century than climate change, and the agricultural sector is no exception. Climate change has caused shifting weather patterns marked by unpredictability and potentially disastrous developments like prolonged drought. Estimates from NASA indicate corn yields may decrease by 24 percent by the end of this century, a potentially dangerous development linked to a host of factors, including a shifting climate and elevated surface carbon dioxide concentrations that can be traced to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
2. Population growth: The booming global population is attributable to numerous factors, including longer life expectancies in developed nations due to medical advancements. How to keep the global population fed at a time when the climate is adversely affecting crop yields is a significant challenge facing both humanity and the agricultural sector. As the population grows, so, too, does the demand for water, which also must be used to grow crops.
3. Investment: Perhaps no industry is more vital to human survival than agriculture. Earth.org notes that countries with strong agricultural sectors often boast higher standards of living and health than nations with a less productive agricultural industry. Despite that, Earth.org notes that investment in the agricultural sector is not commensurate with the growing population. Supporting measures to invest more heavily in the agricultural sector could reduce food shortages in the decades to come and ensure the agricultural sector is better positioned to address the many challenges it is already confronting in the 21st century.
The challenges facing the agricultural sector affect those who work in the industry but also the global population as a whole. Recognition of that reality may compel more people to support measures designed to ensure the agricultural sector can thrive and help the world to overcome potentially devastating challenges in the decades ahead.
