State and Future of Agriculture

He outlined which factors are hardly influenced by producers in agriculture and which are easier to influence. He said that climate change, the development of market prices on international markets and technological progress were practically impossible to influence. Due to low interest rates, more and more financial investors are buying farmland. The resulting high prices cannot be financed from the yields of arable farming. Many farms are therefore denied the expansion steps required by technical progress.

Among the options for further farm development is better matching production to the needs of consumers. This requires close cooperation with the processors of agricultural goods. In addition, the advantages for the environment of sustainable arable farming should be made clearer. It is the responsibility of agricultural policy to create the framework conditions for this. The state should also expand the applied research capacities in order to support farms in reacting appropriately to exogenous conditions.
 

from left to right: Lorenz Mayr (Boden.Leben), Manfred Weinhappel (Chamber of Agriculture Lower Austria, Plant Production), Andreas Leidwein (Chamber of Agriculture Lower Austria), Manfred Schulz (Member of the State Parliament), Angela Baumgartner (Member of the National Council), Franz Sinabell (WIFO), Klaus Haslinger (ZAMG), Franz Bauer (egz), Manfred Zörnpfenning (District Farmers' Chamber Gänserndorf) – © egz/Clemens Reinsperger