Precision Conservation Management (PCM) was invited to participate in the World Economic Forum’s Finance Task Force Meeting on December 19, 2023. PCM’s role in the “100 Million Farmer Taskforce” is to represent farmer voices and provide insights into barriers that farmers around the world face when trying to adopt conservation practices.

“Due to our work with farmers, we’ve gained the attention of global organizations working on sustainability issues. They trust us to represent farmers’ voices and seek to understand why we take the approach we do and what we see as the challenges for conservation practice adoption. This work is giving farmers a seat at the table during important global discussions that aim to address real-world barriers to sustainable food production.” 

Greg Goodwin, PCM Director

During the meeting, PCM shared the following challenges farmers potentially face when making practice changes:

• Complexity of reaching overly prescriptive practice standard thresholds and associated paperwork burden
• Logistics of labor/time shortage (ex: cover crop planting overlapping with harvest season)
• Lack of qualified professionals to advise farmers during conservation planning
• Land ownership impact on decision-making
• Varying management approach and goals based on farm size

As a result of the meeting, the World Economic Forum published a report in collaboration with Bain & Company titled 100 Million Farmers: Breakthrough Models for Financing a Sustainability Transition.  This report describes a breakthrough model for financing and collaboration to support farmers and accelerate the transition to sustainable food, fuel and fiber production. A summary of the report can be found here. PCM is featured as one of seven notable programs that illustrate elements of the breakthrough models and demonstrate strong initial traction.

PCM will continue to share Midwest farmer perspectives with the World Economic Forum for their 100 Million Farmers Initiative as they work to position food and farmers as central pillars on the global climate agenda and reach a tipping point that could shape the future of food and water systems by 2030.