Global Farmer Insights 2024

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Farmers worldwide are navigating challenges such as increased input prices, extreme weather events, and commodity price volatility. Given the current macroeconomic environment, the priority for farmers today is improving productivity, whether through agriculture technologies (agtech) for improving operations, biological products, or sustainable practices. This report offers insights for organizations collaborating with growers, outlining strategies that could deliver more-personalized products and services to boost productivity and seize emerging opportunities.

Since 2018, McKinsey has surveyed and interviewed thousands of farmers around the world to better understand their views. In the first quarter of 2024, we interviewed about 4,400 farmers in Europe (France, Germany, and the Netherlands), India, Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico), and North America (Canada and the United States) (see sidebar, “Survey details”). This effort follows a global survey we conducted in 2022.

The survey covered five main areas: farmers’ views of profit risks and opportunities; farmers’ outlook on future profits; adoption of sustainable practices; adoption of products and technology; and purchasing channels and main influencers on the purchasing journey. We summarize the survey’s key takeaways below.

Given the current macroeconomic environment, the priority for farmers today is improving productivity, whether through agriculture technologies (agtech) for improving operations, biological products, or sustainable practices.

An increase in input prices remains farmers’ main concern, and extreme weather events are emerging as a close second.

Globally, farmers are most likely to try new yield-increase products to take advantage of opportunities in the next two years.

Economic outlook varies per region, with European and North American farmers more pessimistic on future profits

Farmers in Latin America and India have a more optimistic outlook on future profits than those in North America and Europe.

Yield improvements and production efficiency are driving adoption of sustainable farming practices

Adoption of sustainability-oriented practices is driven by yield.
There is high adoption of sustainability-oriented practices such as crop rotation, reduced or no tillage, and variable rate fertilization.
About 90 percent of farmers expect to maintain or increase biological products spend; thus, adoption could continue to increase.
Participation in carbon programs remains low at about 12 percent despite strong increases since 2022 in the United States.

Operations-focused technology continues to drive adoption

Tech adoption continues to grow, with North America and Latin America leading.
Countries with larger farm sizes, such as Brazil and the United States, are leading in adoption of digital technologies.
Use cases for digital agronomy vary across regions.
Globally, adoption of digital agronomy use cases is higher among row farmers.
Use cases for precision agriculture hardware vary across regions.

Farmers around the world cite input distributors as a key influence for recommendations on soil health

Digital matters for agricultural purchases, but growers still prefer in-person interactions; Latin American growers are most digitally engaged.

What this means for serving farmers

Organizations providing technology and services to farmers have an opportunity to expand their impact in these challenging times with solutions tailored to individual farmer needs and differing geographic contexts. Their opportunities include the following.

Partnering with farmers to manage volatility

Agriculture players could continue to think creatively about ways to partner with farmers on risk management. For example, they could help farmers capture emerging opportunities by offering products and services to navigate volatile crop prices, such as hedges in places where they are less popular. In addition, they could market products focused on multiyear farming transitions, including assisting farmers that are adopting new practices or shifting geographic footprints to find climatic conditions more suitable to their crops. There is also room for innovation in areas such as scaling climate risk value pools, including insurance, and launching new weather-adaptable products (for example, crop varieties and irrigation practices).

Helping growers realize the financial benefits of adopting sustainable practices

Farmer-facing organizations could help farmers capture the financial benefits of adopting additional sustainable agriculture practices. For example, they could do the following:

  • Identify opportunities to bridge the gap between untapped consumer demand for sustainable products and farmers who are on the verge of achieving a positive ROI from adopting more-sustainable farming practices, recognizing that this effort requires coordination across the entire value chain.
  • Help growers understand and take advantage of available public and private sector monetization opportunities for greenhouse gas reductions, biodiversity, and other sustainability programs.
  • Align commercial offers (products and advisory services) with the requirements of sustainability programs—including potential support on data collection and monitoring, reporting, and verification.
  • Continue to offer education and specific ROI-focused data to help growers understand the full balance sheet effects of changing practices.

Emphasizing ROI-centric solutions

It is conventional wisdom that farmers will adopt products and services that offer two to three times ROI. Yet growers report a persistent gap in understanding the ROI of new products and solutions, including a lack of quality data, compelling value propositions, and clear communication. There continues to be an opportunity for providers and resellers of inputs, digital solutions, advisory services, and hardware to demonstrate the ROI in a clearer way that would make them easier for farmers to adopt.

Deepening relationships with channel partners

The role of the distributor is as important as ever. Farmer-facing organizations, especially integrated distributors, continue to hold a privileged position, with outsize influence and insights into farmers’ decision making. Simultaneously, they can tailor their communications to where farmers are in their journey, including offering digital tools for providing services and repurchase. Survey results suggest this channel will continue to be the most efficient outlet to introduce new products and technologies, influence practice adoption, provide grower education, collect data, and connect players across the value chain.


This year’s survey underscores the complex landscape that farmers globally must navigate, adapting to risks from increased input prices and extreme weather while striving to increase productivity. Farmer-facing organizations have a pivotal role to play in supporting farmers by offering tailored, ROI-centric solutions, fostering sustainable practices, and using digital tools to help deliver a resilient and profitable future for farmers worldwide.

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