Farmers today are faced with incredible pressure: not only do they need to provide food, feed, fibre, and fuel for a growing world population, they need to produce more with less and alongside increasing climate uncertainty. Innovation has always been a vital part of agriculture. Today, it’s downright critical. Our industry needs big ideas and committed team players to imagine, improve, optimize, and educate.
We at Kannar Earth Sciences, Ltd. applaud innovators who are humble and brave, who are curious and persistent, and who refrain from the trap of their own product biases. We understand that the biggest threat to continual innovation is the false belief that your most recent innovation will be the only solution without an expiration date; and even worse that there’s no other innovation like yours or that can compliment what you have. Even esteemed companies with profound innovations are at risk of becoming irrelevant when hubris emerges that results in, ‘We’re not collaborating any longer because we figured it all out by ourselves.’ The fact is, we’re never going to keep pace with innovation demands as islands.
We commend those who are brave enough to have a clear understanding of their value proposition and who work with others to find the necessary skill sets and core competencies to complement innovations with what’s needed for successful commercialization. We know that fierce competition calls for fierce protection of intellectual property. However, we can – and we need to – keep pushing forward towards industry-improving and world-bettering ideas. Impactful changes often come in small, incremental, and positive steps.
At Kannar, innovating is not a ‘thing to do’ or a checklist; it’s a true way of being. Our team plays off each other and especially off external alliances, building ideas and possibilities from brave questions and a ‘what if’ brainstorming mindset. As CEO, I am inspired by the creativity and persistence our team exemplifies every day, and the vision we all embrace that agriculture as a whole truly can be positive for both the grower’s bottom line and our environment.
In agriculture, what’s most needed can unpredictable: as the climate changes, pest and disease resistance issues appear, and the crop demands shift, we as ag-tech companies serve the growers best when we are humble, proactive, and as such ready to respond quickly. For example, while the US hasn’t yet fully adopted micro-plastic free agriculture, we’re already moving towards a broad spectrum of micro-plastic free formulations, not only because it’s better for the environment and the crop, but also so that growers are empowered to choose the technology that serves them best.
