Growing For The Future: The Agriculture Industry

Our modern diet relies heavily on a highly complex web of agriculture holdings.

From small subsistence farms to large multinational corporations, farmers’ products are sold fresh in local markets, but also across the world through sophisticated and modern value chains. Beyond their traditional role of providing humankind with food, farmers are important custodians of the natural environment and have become producers of renewable energy.

However, a growing population and increasing affluence mean a growing demand for agricultural products. The OECD predicts that such demand will grow by 15 percent across the decade ending 2028. The way in which this demand is met will determine the sector’s impact on the natural resource base, notably land, water, and biodiversity. Rising food production also comes with higher greenhouse gas emissions, with nearly one quarter of all emissions coming from agriculture, forestry and land use change. Unsurprisingly, there are now mounting pressures on agriculture to reduce its carbon footprint, and to help mitigate climate change.

At the same time, roughly two billion people across the world derive their livelihoods from agriculture. The sector is also a lynchpin of Southeast Asia’s economy, with countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia earning a significant chunk of export income via agriculture. ASEAN is home to two of the world’s largest rice exporters (Thailand and Vietnam) and has amongst it the top three exporting countries for pineapples, bananas, mango, sugar crops, coffee, cashew nuts and cassava. It is also a top producer and exporter of palm oil, coconut, and rubber as well as a major producer and exporter of seafood.