The Business of Farming

Business_of_Farming

Farmers have always needed to understand business, but those demands have only increased with globalized markets, extreme weather, and more. Learn how farming copes with its own change and that of a changing world in our business of farming series.

Explore these Business of Farming Stories

farm landscape with overcast sky

How Can Farmers Respond to Extreme Weather?

Wild weather isn’t going away, and the costs to farmers can be ruinous. Farmers are fighting back by focusing on the soil.

Extreme Weather
women farmers working in field

Women in Agriculture

Women make up nearly half of all global farmers. Feeding our population depends on helping them.

Women in Agriculture
headshot of man

Agtech Venture Capital Funding is Flourishing

Some of the smartest venture capital investments are going to an unexpected sector: agriculture. AgFunder founder Rob Leclerc explains why.

 

Why AgtechVenture Capital Funding is Flourishing
woman in field looking at phone

Farmers and the Future of Food

There will be billions more people to feed over the coming 30 years, increasing calorie requirements as poverty recedes, limited natural resources to work with, and a changing climate. Solving this interlocking puzzle depends on farmers.

Farmers and the Future of Food
woman at steering wheel of tractor

Women Farmers Breaking Barriers

Women are still fighting for equity in farming, despite statistics that suggest a majority of food worldwide is grown by them. They still lack support and a clear path toward leadership, but women themselves are leading the change.

 

Supporting Women Farmers by Breaking Barriers
woman farmer in field

Urban Farming

Most people hear “farm” and think “rural,” but urban farmers like Jamila Norman are showing how growing food right in the heart of big cities can nourish populations in more ways than one.

Urban Farming

More articles

From Pageant Queen to Growing Greens

From Pageant Queen to Growing Greens

Akosua Kyerewaa Yeboah-Ghansah took her celebrity as a beauty pageant winner and used it to help young women build careers in agriculture, building Miss Agriculture Ghana, a national pageant that crowns winners based on their farming, not their figures.

Agricultural Extension

Agricultural Extension

Extension workers are a crucial educational lifeline for farmers, especially in Africa, where they share the know-how that can lift farmers’ lives, but more investment is needed.

Recruiting Agriculture’s Future

Recruiting Agriculture’s Future

Industries everywhere are grappling with worker shortages, both now and in the future. Farming is not immune, and recruiter Shannon Douglass is working to fill the new breed of farm jobs.

Farmers with Agribusiness MBAs

Farmers with Agribusiness MBAs

The business of farming isn’t as simple as it used to be. That’s why many young farmers are earning master’s degrees in agribusiness.

Farm Advice

Farm Advice

Despite their go-it-alone reputation, farmers are voracious consumers of advice and information. The challenge? Sifting through it all to arrive at the right decision for their fields.

Where are the New Young Farmers?

Where are the New Young Farmers?

The average age for farmers is 60, even in youthful Africa. The lure of urban opportunity combined with high barriers to entry make it challenging to recruit young people, but youth-oriented farming organizations are working to reverse the trend.

Farm to Foodbank

Farm to Foodbank

The COVID-19 pandemic shattered food distribution networks, but quick-thinking volunteers and entrepreneurs stepped in to set up new ways of getting fresh food to the people who needed it.

Agriculture Marketing

Agriculture Marketing

Crop marketing has always been a prime concern of farmers, but with usual routes to market hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, innovative farmers developed new techniques—from diversification to direct-to-consumer—to find buyers.