Challenges for EU Agri-Food and implications for research

European challenges for the agri-food system:
implications for research
Krijn J. Poppe AISA, Bolzano, Italy
Wageningen UR February 2018

Wageningen University & Research
 Academic research & education, and applied research
 5,800 employees (5,100 fte)
 >10,000 students (>125 countries)
 Several locations
 Turnover about € 650 million
 Number 1 Agricultural University for the 4th year in a row
(National Taiwan Ranking)
To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life

Krijn J. Poppe
 Business economist, EUR 1981
 Chief Policy Analyst Wageningen Economic Research
 Rli – Council for the Environment & Infrastructure:
member of the council (1 day / wk)
 Fellow and former Secretary-General of the EAAE
● Involved in its journal management (ERAE, EuroChoices)
 Member South Holland Council for Environmental Advise
 Member of the Governing Board of SKAL
 EU Projects; SCAR-AKIS 1-3 and Chair Experts Food2030

Content
 Societal challenges and innovation areas
 Need for a food system approach
 The role of ICT – and why now
 Changes in our AKIS
 Key innovation challenges
 Implications for public policy: CAP and FP9

Five major challenges
 Food and nutrition security and safety
 Climate change and water & energy use
 Reducing ecological impacts (biodiversity)
 Healthy diet for a lifelong healthy lifestyle
 Inequality

Five major innovation areas
 Genetics
 Digitalisation and big data
 Energy and bio-based transitions
 Redesigning the food chain
 Social innovations

Five misunderstandings
 ‘There is a crisis in agriculture’
 ‘It is wrong for the organisation of
the food chain to be so industrialised’
 ‘Agriculture is the main solution
for rural areas’
 ‘International trade is harmful’
 ‘The CAP is expensive and leads
to overproduction’

Food chain: 2 weak spots – opportunity?
Input industriesFarmerFood processorConsumer Retail
• Public health issues –
obesity, Diabetes-2 etc.
• Climate change asks for
changes in diet
• Strong structural change
• Environmental costs
need to be internalised
• Climate change (GHG)
strengthens this
Is it coincidence that these 2 are the weakest groups?
Are these issues business opportunities / market failure?
Or system failure and lack of transformative capacity?

The role of ICT – and why now?
Based on work with WUR team (Sjaak Wolfert, Cor Verdouw, Lan Ge, Marc
Jeroen Bogaardt, Jan Willem Kruize and others)

tijd
Mate van verspreiding
van technologische revolutie
Installatie periode
Volgende
golf
Uitrol periode
Draai-
punt
INDRINGER
EXTASE
SYNERGIE
RIJPHEID
Door-
braak
Werkeloosheid
Stilstand oude bedrijfstakken
Kapitaal zoekt nieuwe techniek
Financiele bubble
Onevenwichtigheden
Polarisatie arm en rijk
Gouden eeuw
Coherente groei
Toenemende externalities
Techniek bereikt grenzen
Marktverzadiging
Teleurstelling en gemakzucht
Institutionele
innovatie
Naar Perez, 2002
Crash
2008
1929
1893
1847
1797
time
Degree of diffusion of the
technological revoluton
Installation period
Next
wave
Deployment
period
Turning
point
IRRUPTION
FRENZY
SYNERGY
MATURITY
Big Bang
Unemployment
Decline of old industries
Capital searches new techniques
Financial bubble
Decoupling in the system
Polarisation poor and rich
Golden age
Coherent growth
Increasing externalities
Last products & industries
Market saturation
Disappointment vs
complacency
Crash
2008
1929
1893
1847
1797
Institutional
innovation
Based on Perez, 2002
The opportunity for green growth
1971 chip ICT
1908 car, oil, mass production
1875 steel
1829 steam, railways
1771 water, textiles

Disruptive ICT Trends:
 Mobile/Cloud Computing – smart phones, wearables,
incl. sensors
 Internet of Things – everything gets connected in the
internet (virtualisation, M2M, autonomous devices)
 Location-based monitoring - satellite and remote sensing
technology, geo information, drones, etc.
 Social media - Facebook, Twitter, Wiki, etc.
 Block Chain – Tracing & Tracking, Contracts.
Big Data - Web of Data, Linked Open Data, Big data
algorithms
High Potential for unprecedented innovations!
everywhere
anything
anywhere
everybody

Drones, Big Data and
Agriculture 13
IoT in Smart Farming
cloud-based event
and data
management
smart sensing
& monitoring
smart analysis
& planning
smart control

Virtual Box
Location A Location B
Location
& State
update
Location &
State
update Location
& State
update
IoT in Agri-Food Supply Chains
14
Drones, Big Data and

IoT and the consumer
15
Drones, Big Data and Agriculture
Source: Hisense.com
Smart Farming
Smart Logistics
tracking/& tracing
Domotics Health Fitness/Well-being

Towards smart autonomous objects
Source: Deloitte (2014), IT Trends en Innovatie Survey
Tracking &
Tracing
Monitoring
I am thirsty: water
me within 1 hour!
I am product X at
locatie L of Z
My vaselife is
optimal at a
temperature of
4,3 °C.
I am too warm:
lower the
temperature by
3 °C
Event
Management
I am too warm: I lower
the cooling of my truck
X by 2 °C.
I don’t want to
stand besides
that banana!
I am thirsty!
I am warm!
Optimalisation
Autonomy

Grand challenges: tomorrow’s business
Input industries
Farmer
Food processor Retail / consumerSoftware
provider
Logistic solu-
tion providers
Collaboration and Data Exchange is needed!
Food & nutrition
security
Climate
change
Healthy diet
for a healthy
life
Environmental
issues

There is a need for
ABCDEFs:
Agri-Business
Collaboration & Data
Exchange Facilities
• Large organisations have
gone digital, with ERP
systems
• But between organisations
(especially with SMEs) data
exchange and
interoperability is still poor
• ABCDEF platforms help
• Our focus: data governance
law & regulation
innovation
geographic
cluster
horizontal
fulfillment
Vertical

Chain organisation changes (©Gereffi et al., 2005)
inputsEndproduct
PRICE
Shops
Complete
Integration
Lead
company
Lead
company
Turnkey
supplier
Relational
supplier
Market Modular Relational Captive Hierarchy
Low Degree of explicit coordination and power asymmetry High
Lead
company
Farmers

Europe towards
2030
3 scenarios to
explore the future
of EU agriculture +
implications for
Agricultural
Knowledge and
Innovation
Systems

 HighTech: strong influence new technology owned by
multinationals. Driverless tractors, contract farming and a
rural exodus. US of Europe. Rich society with inequality.
Sustainability issues solved. Bio-boom scenario.
 Self-organisation: Europe of regions where new ICT
technologies with disruptive business models lead to self-
organisation, bottom-up democracy, short-supply chains,
multi-functional agriculture. European institutions are weak,
regions and cities rule. Inequalities between regions,
depending on endowments.
 Collapse: Big climate change effects, mass-migration and
political turbulence leads to a collapse of institutions and
European integration. Regional and local communities look
for self-sufficiency. Bio-scarcity and labour intensive
agriculture. Technology development becomes dependent on
science in China, India, Brazil.

Scenario 1: High Tech
multinationals, clean technology, strong EU
(c) Toshiba

Scenario 2: Self organisation
new business models, regions and cities rule, diversify
Tempelhof, Berlin (c) Kasper Jensen

Scenario 3: Collapse
climate change, migration, breaking up of the EU

Effects on AKIS
(Ag. Knowledge & Innovation System)
 HighTech: International players in agribusiness, direct
access to best universities for own labs and extension
programs. EU-Public Private Partnerships. Product and
technology oriented. Upskilling of specialised AKIS staff.
Small role regional government.
 Self-organisation: Regional orientation, food and non-
food. New (local) actors like NGO and cities. EU: connect
the dots. Multi-skills of AKIS staff.
 Collapse: Local orientation, food oriented. Problems of
soil and water are main focus. Fragmentation of AKIS,
strong emphasis on extension. Donors play a big role,
fundamental research is done in China or India.
Emphasis on basic skills of AKIS staff.

Misunderstandings in social debate: one
as a solution of everything, -where??
Productivism paradigm
 Focus on more supply
 Calories for the world
 Eco-efficiency per kg
Sufficiency paradigm
 Food is more than calories
 Changes in menu needed
for sustainability
 Local effects, emissions
per ha count too.
@SCAR 3rd foresight
• Put fewer forks on the table –
Thomas Maltus (1798, An
essay on the principles of
population)
• Bake a bigger pie - Marquis
de Condorcet
• Teach everyone better table
manners – William Godwin
© Warren Belasco: Meals to come – a
history of the future of food

INPUT
INDUSTRY
FOOD
PROCESSING
FARMERS ICT
RETAIL
& OUT
of
HOME,
Food
Procesng
Health
sector
+ Cities
CONSU-
MERS
Less animal
based:
• Reduce GHG cattle
• Improve sustainb.
pigs and poultry
• New (lab) meat
and feed (insects,
algae etc.)
More plant based:
• Improve soil management
• Cope with climate change (water)
• Less chemicals, more biodiversity
• Improve factory farming
CIRCULAR PRINCIPLES
• Less waste
• More resource efficiency
• Close P-cycle
Help
Consumers
Change:
* personalised
nutrition
Green,
Healthy
Cities
Peri-urban
multifunctional
farms with short
supply chains
Help Empty
Rural Regions
Climate
change
Healthy diet
for a
healthy life

Transforming the CAP into a
Common Agricultural and Food Policy

Five examples of a Common Agricultural
and Food Policy
 Make our diets more healthy and sustainable
with a price that factors in true costs
 Incorporate climate change agreements
in farm decisions
 Align incentives in the food chain
 Install smart instruments for environmental
management
 Support disruptive innovation in the
urban food system and bio-economy

Transforming the CAP into a CAFP
Pillar A
INCOME
SUPPORT
Pillar B
ECOSYSTEM
SERVICES
Pillar C
RURAL
DEVELOPMENT
Pillar D
FOOD
& HEALTH
Pillar E
MONITORING
& RESEARCH

Pillar C: rural development
Innovate for
competitiveness

Pillar E: monitoring reflection and research
By the deployment of reflective citizen science
in support of adaptive governance

Food2030: 4 themes ?
EU’s Framework Programme #9 (FP 9)

Thanks for your
attention
krijn.poppe@wur.nl
www.wur.nl

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