What we can learn from agriculture for innovation strategies

💡 𝟯 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝘆 "𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗰𝘀" 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆

Innovation in agriculture in the last few hundred years has led to unprecedented productivity increases.

An example: an acre (less than one football field) was the size of land one farmer could plough with an ox during one morning.

Just imagine how many football fields one farmer is able to plough during one morning nowadays.

But as in every system there are glass ceilings: at some point, further growth is not possible.

Reinvention is necessary.

And in terms of agriculture this might mean: getting back to the basics.

The attached image shows the root system of perennial crops. Perennial crops are productive over multiple seasons instead of being sown again each season.

This increased lifetime allows them to form deeper root systems and deeper root systems ultimately lead to a healthier soil that is productive even without regular plowing.

It also reduces water runoff and perennial crops support CO2 sequestration more effectively.

I'm excited to see the first success stories of the commercialization of such crops in the future.

Source: https://foodhack.global/articles/there's-a-big-problem-with-the-plough