Assaf Dotan of Grace Breeding On How Farmers And The Ag Industry Are Adapting To The Disruptions Caused By Climate And World Events
An Interview With Martita Mestey
Learn fast: Disruptive events may last a while and may have long term effects. Agriculture is a seasonal business, so farmers should quickly analyze the market trends and take advantage of their position.
As a part of our series called “How Farmers And The Ag Industry Are Adapting To The Disruptions Caused By Climate And World Events”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Assaf Dotan.
Assaf Dotan is an agrotech entrepreneur with over 25 years of agricultural international business experience. He is an innovation entrepreneur, who has specialized is agricultural investment. Assaf has dedicated his career to creating and managing innovative agricultural solutions, and is currently a board member in multiple household names like Adama, Vertical Field and Agridrones.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I come from a family of farmers. My parents’ farm is located in the Arava valley in Israel, a place with very dry and hard conditions that makes it difficult to grow crops. Nevertheless, 60 years later it developed into one of Israel’s desert paradises, growing fruits and vegetables by using the most innovative agriculture technologies. Living so close to nature forces one to think twice about the products used to protect crops while attempting to minimize their ecological damage.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
Growing up in a family of farmers, we were the first one to establish a greenhouse in the desert in order to create the advantage of getting earlier yields and gaining higher margins. Climate and family connection can sometimes create interesting stories. Once, there was a storm in the desert which caused me to feel that something or someone is in danger. I drove fast to the field where we had the first desert greenhouse. On arriving at the field, I found my father lying with his body on the plastic that covers the greenhouse trying to prevent it from taking the whole crop up into the air. Immediately I started to help my father to cover back the plastic and by that we saved the future income of the family. In the coming years the whole area covered itself with greenhouses.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Freedom — As a team leader, I believe in giving your team members the freedom to operate, think differently, and come up with new ideas.
Passion — I am very passionate about what I do and I always try to share this passion with my team members.
Purpose — At the end of the day we are here to deliver. Everything we do needs to be strategically connected to the company objectives and it is our goal to fulfill that purpose.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My life lesson quote is one of Albert Einstein’s, ”A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
Doing the same thing over and over again will always produce the same results. Don’t be afraid to try. Sometimes you fail, but if you study from that failure, you learn to ask the right questions and try again you will know how to make it better and succeed.
Can you share something about your work that makes you most proud? Is there a particular story or incident that you found most uplifting?
In the past, while working for an agrochemical company, I established a new model to develop, market, and sell new products in agriculture, called CMT.
My goal was to develop a product that would replace one of the world’s most harmful agrochemicals, Organo-Phosphate. After 4 years of product development and registration, we managed to create a new product that started making its first commercial use after selling a few thousand liters. Today, after 10 years, that new product is being sold by millions of liters per year. I am very proud of our “small” contribution to nature and sustainability by reducing environmental damage and creating a better place to live in.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about ‘How Farmers and the Ag Industry Are Adapting to the Disruptions Caused by Climate and World Events’. This might be intuitive to you but it will be helpful to expressly spell this out. Can you share with our readers a few examples of why and how climate change is causing disruptions to agriculture?
Climate is the most unpredictable factor affecting farmers. Farmers face many daily questions about their farm, farming, employees, markets, etc. which the farmer can get data or support about.
Climate used to be and still is the #1 unpredictable element influencing agriculture.
We are all familiar with the increase in temperature that is strongly related to carbon dioxide emissions in the air. The increase in temperature can cause major losses to parts of your yield–including the flowering stage of the plant — not being able to harvest your crops due heavy rains in an irregular season, and more.
Corn (Maize), one of the most important crops and a key player in feeding the global population, increased its yields during the last 15 years in several U.S. states, BUT temperatures rose to a certain point that the crop may no longer increase its yield — rather it may dramatically decrease the potential yield per area.
What about world events? Can you share with our readers a few examples of why and how world events and geopolitical choices cause causing disruptions to agriculture?
Unfortunately, this one today is an easy example. Just look at the Russia-Ukraine war. Both Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of cereals and fertilizers. Their influence on global grain stocks and inventory as well as the availability of fertilizers is huge.
Based on your experience and research, can you please share your “5 Things Farmers and Ag Industry Workers Can Do to Adapt to the Disruptions Caused by Climate and World Events”? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
1. Diversify: Although focusing on one crop and mastering it may lead to continued success, later events like Covid-19, Russia-Ukraine war, etc, demonstrate the importance of diversifying your farm to reduce the risks in the case a disruptive event occurs.
2. Learn fast: Disruptive events may last a while and may have long term effects. Agriculture is a seasonal business, so farmers should quickly analyze the market trends and take advantage of their position.
3. Adopt technologies that will reduce the dependency on exterior product supply.
4. Establish local production facilities close to the target market. We have all seen how the transportation costs influenced product prices during 2020–2021.
5. Climate control: Adopting climate control sensor based technologies can help monitor and early detection in your farm and protect the farmer’s future income..
How has technology played a role in helping farmers and the Ag Industry adapt to the disruptions caused by climate and world events? Can you share a few examples?”
Climate change is a long-term event and agriculture is a seasonal business, so the industry has already started to adopt more and more biological solutions. This is an important strategic change that agriculture is making, and it will have an impact on the planet in 10–15 years. By adopting biological products we can reduce the chemical use in agriculture and therefore reduce the damage caused by using these chemicals.
By adopting climate sensors, one can reduce the uncertainty level for its plant protection, harvest, and potential income.
With greater attention being placed on the importance of the farming and Ag industries, as well as technological advancements, what do you predict will be different about the farming and Ag sectors over the next ten years?
Today the annual CAGR % of biological fertilizers is much higher than that of chemical ones (Brazil: 50% CAGR for biologicals compared to 14% of chemicals). The trend has already started and as long as farmers continue to adopt biological solutions we may see the increase in temperature curve slowing down. We will see a hybrid solution that will combine the solution following the IPM (Integrated pest management) approach. Farmers will maximize their adoption of biological solutions combined with only necessary chemical products as much as possible.
The idea of farming has a very romantic and idyllic character to it, especially to some people living in a busy cosmopolitan context. Do you think now would be a good time for younger people with no farming history to get involved in the farming industry? Can you explain what you mean?
I think so, yes. Farming is not easy. But, as stated, it is romantic and idyllic while young farmers are also looking for high profit. They want to live a good life in the country but still turn a profit. Today, becoming a farmer is easier than in the past because you can find lots of support and guidelines from academia, as well as the public and private sectors.
Where should a young person start if they would like to “get into” farming?
Start with something passionate. This is a key element for farming.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
There are many good and inspiring people around the world. I am a team player, and believe that wisdom is shared by the team.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You may follow me and Grace Breeding on LinkedIn:
Grace Breeding: https://www.linkedin.com/company/grace-breeding/
Assaf Dotan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/assaf-dotan-1b793b75/
This was very meaningful, thank you so much, and we wish you only continued success.
