According to the United Nations, the world’s population is projected to reach nearly ten billion by 2050.1 Against this backdrop, problems such as climate change, soil degradation, water scarcity, new and aggressive plant diseases, and political instability threaten the world’s existing food production systems.
That said, recent developments in (bio)technology4 are giving industry players hope. Biotechnology combines natural and engineering sciences to create products and technologies in human and animal health, agriculture, and the environment. In terms of safeguarding food systems, these developments include the following:
- more-targeted chemical protection for plants and better understanding of the possibilities of combinations of chemicals based on big data and advanced statistical modeling
- bioengineering of plants to avoid the need for chemical protection
- improved field management through precision farming
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Advancements in biotech are still relatively nascent when compared with industries with accelerating rates of tech adoption, such as pharmaceuticals. Yet the availability of genetic engineering, GPS, and AI, as well as increased computing power, have opened up the possibility to drastically improve solutions in biotech, which have traditionally depended on time-intensive test-and-learn approaches.
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The recent advancements in biotechnology we outline here offer promising solutions to the challenges that global agriculture faces. By strategically integrating biotechnology and other next-generation agriculture techniques, food producers can create more-resilient and more-sustainable food systems that meet the demands of a growing population while reducing environmental impact.
