PAG | December 2020

He also suggested that technology companies will

show more interest in the agriculture industry in the

next decade. In the next ten years, Hartnett predicts

that the top five companies in agriculture may not be

Bayer, BASF, John Deere, Nutrien, or Corteva, but rather

Amazon, Google, Beyond Meat, Indigo, and Plenty.

During the presentation, Harnett was asked what

trends became more accelerated during the pandemic.

“Looking through the supply chain, I think the heighted

awareness in terms of food safety and some of the

areas companies that got exposed, you are starting to

see companies now look at digital transformations and

robotics automation,” Harnett suggested.

Conference attendee voices heard

During Harnett’s presentation, attendees were asked

to participate in two poll questions. In response to the

first poll, 42% of poll respondents said they believe

the biggest challenge preventing farms from adopting

technology was the learning curve (training, practice,

implementation, etc.), followed a distant second by 5G

connections.

“I am not surprised by the results,” said Harnett.

“Farmers are overwhelmed with the different solutions

that are out there. Every big company has an IT

department to support them.” He suggested farmers

needs some sort of support as well. A place for farmers

to go to see information such as “what are the top ten

solutions for my type of farm.”

In response to the second poll, what will be the

largest driver for farms to embrace innovation, 56%

of respondents said profitability (yield and quality

improvement) would be the biggest driver.

“Farms are a business,” said Harnett. “They have to

make money.” Ultimately if a farmer is going to adopt

technology into their business, the technology needs

to have a positive impact on the bottom line.