Are new innovations economically sustainable for farmers to adopt?
Blog by: INTENT
The demand for sustainable food production is growing at a breakneck pace. Consumers are increasingly aware of the environmental impact of their food choices and regulatory agencies are setting stricter standards for agricultural practices. In response, agricultural companies and innovators are developing and testing countless new products, services and practices that focus on bringing environmental benefits, such as fewer or net zero-emissions, more efficient chemical use, or less water use, to production agriculture.
However, while environmental sustainability is something positive to strive for, it is critical to also consider how an innovation fits at the farm level and if it is economically sustainable for farmers to adopt. “Farmers don’t adopt new innovations because they are good for the environment,” said Randy Barker, CEO of INTENT. “Farmers adopt innovations because they carry a low risk to adopt, are affordable and will bring an ROI benefit to their individual farms. These factors contribute to economic sustainability and are absolutely vital for the successful adoption of an innovation.”
Five keys to accelerating adoption
While economic sustainability is critical for successful product adoption, there are other factors that innovators must take into consideration. To determine if an environmentally-sustainable innovation is truly viable for adoption, it is vital to connect with farmers to understand if it will actually work on their operations. It is important to talk with farmers to understand their problems, run trials to see if the innovation provides a solution to their problems, and ensure that it makes sense economically.
1. Provide a solution to farmers’ problems
In order to provide a solution to a problem, the problem itself must first be well-understood. By talking to and gathering information directly from farmers, innovators can create a solution that addresses environmental sustainability on the farm. Once the solution is created, running trials ensures that the innovation does what it is supposed to do and solves the problem at hand.
2. Quantify the value of the innovation
Once an innovation is determined to solve a problem, its value needs to be quantified. With economic sustainability top of mind, farmers want to see data that demonstrates their expected return on investment (ROI) from adopting the innovation on their operation.
3. Engage with farmers’ data
With more data captured on farms today than ever before, innovators have an unprecedented opportunity to use on-farm data to their advantage. By engaging with farmers’ data, companies can clearly demonstrate when, where and how a new product or sustainable practice works well, as well as when and where it doesn’t.
4. Reduce the risk of adoption
Every innovation a farmer adopts has an effect on their bottom line, either negative or positive. Most farmers are risk averse, so they are more likely to try and ‘bet’ on those environmentally-sustainable innovations that carry less risk. One way innovators can reduce the risk for farmers trying something new is by demonstrating a clear economic benefit, such as return on investment. Using a farmer’s individual data, as well as regional results, helps farmers see the full picture of an innovation and how it might fit best on their operation. Another way to reduce risk is to allow farmers to test and trial the innovation before they expand its use to more acres.
5. Conduct real-world trials
When it comes to the successful adoption of new innovations, real-world trials are another crucial part of the process. Through real-world trials, companies can produce meaningful data and insights that demonstrate that a new product or practice actually works. Field trials also provide ground-truthing at scale to help agribusinesses learn more about when, where and how farmers would benefit from an innovation and receive a positive return on investment. The aggregated data from trials can also demonstrate how products and practices perform across different variables such as soil types and weather conditions. This information can help farmers determine if a product would be successful if adopted on their unique farms.
Together, these five strategies can help accelerate adoption of new products and practices in the agriculture industry. When innovations deliver quantifiable value, are backed by data, and are low risk to try, farmers will be more likely to adopt them to solve their problems.
“At the end of the day, farmers aren’t trying to solve a global environmental sustainability problem, they are trying to solve a problem on their farm. Having quantifiable feedback helps them do that,” said Barker. “Knowing when to use something and how to use it – that’s what results in success.”
A partner that helps realize the full potential of sustainable innovations
INTENT connects agriculture innovators with farmers to realize the full potential of new innovations. By keeping farmers at the center of the innovation process, INTENT helps companies achieve more success with their sustainability and commercialization initiatives through our versatile offering of software and services.
Through its connection with farmers and powerful technology, INTENT helps agribusinesses gather the information they need to ensure only the best products and practices get commercialized. Instead of pushing new environmentally-friendly products and sustainable practices to farmers and hoping that they will be adopted, INTENT uses its FarmerTrials network of more than 1,000 leading-edge farmers to help agribusinesses find out what farmers need and what is practical for adoption.
“At INTENT, everything we do is for the farmer,” said Barker. “By putting the farmer at the center of the innovation process, we can give agribusinesses the information they need to ensure only the best sustainable products and practices get commercialized and that they will deliver real benefits to the farmer, not just the environment.”
Acting as an extension of its clients’ teams, INTENT connects agribusinesses with farmers to test sustainable innovations in the real-world through extensive field trials. These trials provide valuable insights from the data collected, and help a client ground truth at scale. INTENT also uses its cutting-edge technology and practical experience to bring more efficiency and effectiveness to field-level research, as well as product development and sustainability initiatives.
Through its INvision Trials software, INTENT drastically increases the amount of data collected and offers full geospatial visualization of field trials in a scalable system that delivers more data for greater insights. With its powerful technology, INTENT also has the ability to gather data faster and more reliably, giving companies the power to access insights throughout the season, and make informed decisions earlier than ever before.
Ultimately, through its connections with farmers, powerful technology and practical agriculture experience, INTENT helps companies shorten the adoption cycle by providing rapid data and insights that can be used to drive decisions about when, where and how to implement sustainable products and practices in the agriculture industry.
Learn more at: intent.ag