The Impact of International Affairs on Agriculture by Jai Jackson-Jin (DJPR)

Ukraine: Fertilisers

jaijacksonjin1 — 2022-04-19 23:50:08 UTC

-Logistics: transporting supply in a time of conflict; sanctions and export bans on Russia
-Supply: Russia and Ukraine as key producers of fertilisers
-Gas prices: a key input in the production of nitrogen fertilisers
* Breakeven ratio: calculation between the cost of fertilisers and the value of crop production, linked to farm profitability

Afghanistan: Wheat imports

jaijacksonjin1 — 2022-04-20 00:45:20 UTC

Wheat imports from UKR, RUSS
US economic sanctions: limited cash to purchase essentials including food
Cause: Russia’s ban on food and fertilizer exports to stabilize supply and prices at home during the war with Ukraine.

Sri Lanka: Organic farming

jaijacksonjin1 — 2022-04-20 00:50:24 UTC

April 2020, President Rajapaksa implemented a nationwide ban on the importation and use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides on the nation's 2 million farmers. Yields suffered and the policy was ultimately reversed, with $US200M in financial compensation to those farmers negatively impacted by the ban.
-Domestic rice production -20% in the first 6 months; long self-sufficient but forced to import $450M worth of rice; domestic prices +50%
-Domestic tea production fell, the nation's primary export and source of foreign exchange

China: Zero-tolerance COVID policy

jaijacksonjin1 — 2022-04-20 01:06:25 UTC

Trade and travel barriers impacting the import of raw goods and agricultural products.
-Rice: Myanmar, Vietnam (>50% of China's rice imports in 2020)

Australia: Buy-now-pay-later

jaijacksonjin1 — 2022-04-20 01:11:25 UTC

Context: livestock and commodity prices, drought, mouse plagues, floods; ag industry dominated by banks and government-backed schemes; additional element of risk
-DelayPay: loans for stock, machinery and feed, approved within 24 hours, 6 months to repay
-AgPay: aimed at cropping farmers, $50,000~$1 million approved within 48 hours, 6~12 months to repay
*Approvals made through AI and other systems on the basis of primary producer's balance sheets, cropping plans and history

Nairobi, Kenya: Hello Tractor app

jaijacksonjin1 — 2022-04-20 01:45:01 UTC

Uber-like platform for small-hold farmers to connect with tractor owners and owners of other expensive tools

United States: Indo-Pacific Economic Framework

jaijacksonjin1 — 2022-04-20 23:00:32 UTC

https://www.csis.org/analysis/regional-perspectives-indo-pacific-economic-framework
"Some countries viewed food security and food systems resilience cooperation as promising but also saw agriculture as an area where the United States would inevitably try to eliminate sensitive import restrictions."

Indonesia: AgTech ecosystem

jaijacksonjin1 — 2022-04-21 22:29:17 UTC

Key business models
1. Farmers advisory
2. Peer-to-peer lending
3. Traceability
4. Digital marketplaces
5. Mechanisation

To be adopted…
• Mobile / internet connectivity
• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Machine learning (ML)
• Cloud computing
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Blockchain / Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)

The ecosystem…
• Digital infrastructure
○ Agricultural data
§ Farmer registries
§ Soil maps
§ Weather
§ Agronomy
§ Pest and disease surveillance
○ Digital hardware
§ Drone technology
§ Satellite / GIS
§ Sensors
§ Soil diagnostic tools
○ Digital software
§ Data capture tools
§ Field agent management tools
§ Blockchain platforms
○ Digital application areas
§ Advisory services
§ Market linkages
§ Financial access
§ Supply chain management
§ Macro agri-intelligence

Africa: Climate Change

jaijacksonjin1 — 2022-04-21 22:31:39 UTC

In Ethiopia, where agriculture accounts for one-third of its GDP and more than seven in 10 Ethiopians depend on income from agriculture, the authors speculate that disruptions from climate change could be devastating...

Notably, Ethiopia is the top coffee producer in Africa

and the 10th-largest in the world, and decreasing precipitation and rising temperatures may exacerbate the probability of a 25 percent or greater yield decline for Ethiopian coffee. Considering coffee is the country’s

most valuable export crop, deriving more than one-third of the country’s export earnings, McKinsey analysts conclude that the economic impacts of climate change on both wheat and coffee in Ethiopia will detrimentally affect smallholder farmers, downstream sectors (trade and food processing), and the broader economy.

Spain: Ancient irrigation

jaijacksonjin1 — 2022-04-21 22:35:33 UTC

Acequia, part of a network of thousands of kilometres of irrigation channels created by Muslim peasant farmers more than a thousand years ago.

The MemoLab project is restoring the region’s extraordinary hydrological network at a time when the climate crisis is exposing Spain to prolonged periods of drought and intensive farming is putting extreme pressure on water supplies.

Spain: U.S. ag-tech company Agro.Club collaborates with Spanish neo-bank Crealsa to digitize financing in agriculture

jaijacksonjin1 — 2022-04-21 22:37:01 UTC

According to the surveys conducted among Spanish farmers, high production costs and low selling prices are the central problems for them. As the research states, more than 70% of Spanish farmers applied for financing in 2017, which is substantially higher than the EU-27 average of 30%. While purchase of machinery, equipment and facilities turned out to be the main purposes for bank loans, working capital financing is still an underserved need.