Carbon Credits, Renewable Diesel Among Key Topics Discussed at Annual IAP Meeting

In late September, Integrated Agribusiness Professionals (IAP) held its annual owners meeting in Louisville, KY. As might be expected, members talked a lot about the current state of agriculture. It was the organization’s focus on anticipated future trends, however, that had many of the attendees buzzing.

First up was a discussion on carbon credits. For the past several years now, there has been a big push within agriculture to “get growers on board” with this way of furthering the cause of sustainable agriculture. However, one IAP member company remained skeptical that carbon credits would find widespread acceptance, at least in the short term.

“The hardest thing to figure out right now with carbon credits is data,” said the IAP member company representative. “Until this is worked out more thoroughly, I think many growers, especially those in the Midwest, will be the last to table giving this a try.”

Another member talked briefly about the impact renewable diesel development might have on all of agriculture. As this form of renewable energy derived from soybeans progresses, market watchers such as CoBank are predicting U.S. growers will need to add almost 18 million acres of soybeans to crop fields to keep up with demand. “I think this has the potential to really shift a lot of acres away from corn, in our area and many other parts of the country,” said the IAP representative.

Still, perhaps the trend with the biggest potential impact on agriculture is technology adoption. In fact, according to Nishan Majarian, CEO/Co-Founder of AGRIAN by Telus Agriculture, developments such as artificial intelligence (AI) are already changing how things are done in the overall market.

“Making machines smarter has been talked about by our industry from more than 20 years now,” said Majarian. “But the future is literally now. I predict that by 2025 or 2030, these kinds of AI-driven machines in agriculture will be very much the norm. Some of us today have no idea how AI will change everything.”

Still, said Majarian, humans will continue to play a significant role in this increasingly “machine” world. “I am a firm believer that humans won’t be replaced by these systems, but that they will help them,” he said. “Products such as John Deere’s See & Spray are just the first steps. For companies within agriculture, the choice will be to either embrace and learn to use these technology tools or be left behind.”