Agriculture innovations that make farming more sustainable can help restore soil health, reduce toxic runoff, and meet evolving regulations in some parts of the world. But those changes don’t happen overnight – or even within in a single season.
For farmers whose livelihood depends on the success of their next crop, that means adopting inputs that are more environmentally sustainable in the long term may seem financially risky in the short term that’s a problem, which means they have good reason to hesitate before embracing such products.
Add in the fact that getting people to try new things is always a struggle, and retailers and manufacturers hoping to encourage customers to embrace more sustainable products have a significant challenge ahead of them. In this piece, we’ll outline five strategies retailers and manufacturers can use to help overcome customer hesitation about trying new, sustainable solutions.
- Define Sustainability as Stewardship
For better or worse, “sustainability” is a somewhat charged term. While most people would agree in theory that agricultural practices that allow for the long-term viability of the land are a net positive, using the word “sustainability” to encapsulate that concept may turn some people off.
The good news is that, in the agricultural sphere, there’s still some fuzziness around what exactly “sustainability” means. When positioned as something akin to stewardship – that is, practices that ensure the land will be healthy and productive for generations to come – it tends to resonate more.
Retailers and manufacturers interested in promoting sustainable crop inputs may see success by framing these inputs in terms of their ability to promote good stewardship and therefore help farmers ensure the viability of their land and their legacy.
- Educate Farmers on How to Understand, Compare, and Use Biologicals
That big-picture framing only does so much work, however.
One major hurdle to adoption for innovative sustainable ag products is that they’re relatively new. At the same time, we’re seeing a lot of biologicals and other sustainable crop inputs come to market right now. The combination of a new category plus abundant choices within that category can be overwhelming for farmers.
Retailers and agronomists can help by providing as much education as possible:
- What various types of products do
- How they work with other inputs
- When they’re appropriate (and when they’re not)
- When in the season they can be applied
- …and so on.
Just as important: many farmers will need guidance on how to read and interpret labels, which may include unfamiliar terminology and claims.
Agronomists may also want to guide farmers in how to test biologicals in the field – strip trials, for example, can be effective for seeing firsthand how those products compare with conventional inputs.
- Be Specific with Expected Outcomes
The stakes are high for farmers considering new crop inputs. Abstract marketing claims (“you’ll see strong results”) aren’t likely to do much to convince a hesitant customer.
Instead, retailers should aim to provide as many specifics as possible: use of this product improves the efficiency of fertilizer by X percent, so that you can use Y percent less fertilizer.
One bright spot in the world of biologicals: as larger, more established retail organizations acquire smaller biological startups, they’re investing in real-world research, in some cases paying growers to use their products in exchange for yield data. As manufacturers have more of this data to provide retailers, agronomists can in turn provide farmers with concrete explanations of what to expect by adopting a given input.
- Focus on the Financial Benefits of Sustainable Inputs
We’re in a difficult moment for farmers right now: input costs are high after years of inflation, interest rates are as high as they’ve been in decades, and commodity prices are low.
Retailers and manufacturers hoping to drive adoption of sustainable crop inputs can use this market reality to their advantage: many sustainable inputs improve the efficiency of other inputs. For example: RhizoSorb, a phosphorus fertilizer manufactured by Phospholutions, increases fertilizer availability by 50 percent, meaning that growers who use it can save 20 percent on costs while maintaining yields.
That framing is compelling in this economic moment – but only if agronomists have the data to back their claims and the knowledge to guide farmers toward biologicals that are appropriate for their situation.
- Incentivize Trying Sustainable Products
As we noted at the start, it’s hard to get people to try new things. Even when retailers get everything right – from the high-level messaging to the education to the product specs to the ROI estimate – many farmers will still be reluctant to embrace the untested. This is thanks to a psychological phenomenon called loss aversion, which we’ve written about in more depth elsewhere.
To help farmers clear that final hurdle to adoption, retailers can experiment with digital financial products that offer further incentives to trying adoption.
A warranty, for example, can reduce the risk of trying something new: when a farmer knows they’ll receive a cash payout should the product in question not perform as expected, they may be more likely to take the risk. Our Crop Plan Warranty is designed to be flexible, so that retailers can attach it to any product, bundle of products, or whole-acre prescription that works for their operations.
Attaching such a warranty to a product or bundle communicates to customers that you’ve got skin in the game – that you’re so convinced of the efficacy of what you’re selling that you’ll put money on the line if it doesn’t perform. That commitment always sends a powerful message.
Retailers and Manufacturers Can Speed Adoption of Sustainable Ag Innovations
The good news for retailers and manufacturers is that they have a critical role to play in speeding the adoption of sustainable crop inputs, and therefore in helping achieve all the benefits laid out at the start of this piece.
But it’s important to understand that effecting change is a process. Getting people to try new things takes time. Those who are most successful will be the ones who accept this reality and approach the job of driving adoption with patience and commitment.