Agriculture is the cultivation of land and breeding of animals and plants to provide food, fiber and other products to sustain life. The world population has been increasing at a faster rate and is projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. The food production has to be increased by 70% by 2050 to feed the huge population, and hence there has been increasing technological advancements in the agriculture industry.
In agriculture domain we focus on various agribusiness segments such as agriculture inputs, agrochemicals, animal husbandry, farm equipment and machinery, agricultural biotechnology and various services related to the industry. The agriculture industry has transformed tremendously since the Green Revolution, wherein majority of the industrial players started investing huge amounts in agricultural products. These investments impelled the advancements in plant and animal breeding practices to increase yield and quality of the produce. The application of IoT, biotechnology and artificial intelligence in agriculture industry, inter-related multiple domains and led to trends such as precision agriculture, and agrigenomics. Development of hybrid seeds, slow-release pesticides and fertilizers, agricultural biologicals were a few megatrends in the agricultural input domain, while application of genetics in animal husbandry, and aquaculture gained pace in animal breeding industry.
The market reports on agriculture industry can be broadly classified into crop protection chemicals, plant nutrition, seeds & traits, agricultural biologicals, farm equipment & irrigation, agriculture technology & lifesciences, and animal nutrition & health. Agricultural biologicals, seed & traits, and agriculture technology have been gaining immense importance as organic farming, precision farming have been developing across the globe. Majorly owing to the increasing industrial importance of cereals and grains, such as, corn, wheat and rice, and high cash value against fruits and vegetables, majority of the advancements have been applied for these segments. While, in animal breeding application, owing to the increasing demand for poultry and dairy products, chicken and cattle population have been highly studied. Majority of the reports have been further studies based on the industry coverage (such as plants and animals), crop/ livestock coverage, input & stress management and geographical coverage.
Increasing stringency on regulations for agricultural products has been the major cause for adoption of alternative technology over traditional practices. Sustainable agricultural inputs have been the key to agricultural transformation towards organic growth in order to meet the essential food and feed requirements. For instance, banning of some agrochemical compounds such as organochlorines and organophosphates in the European market and strict regulations on pesticide residue level boosted the adoption of biological products among farmers.
Extensive research activities have been initiated by research institutions and key players to identify, and test the viability of new technologies and their approval for commercial purposes. Geographical inconsistency on regulations for agricultural products has been a major restraint for development of innovative technologies in the industry. The application of modern agronomy practices could be a suitable alternative to traditional agricultural practices by as much as 70%, and hence the overall production cost without compromising on the economic yield.
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