Global Harvest Initiative examines down cycle in annual ag productivity report

A coalition made up of large agribusinesses and various consulting groups released its annual updated Global Agricultural Productivity report. The Global Harvest Initiative typically uses its agricultural productivity report to spotlight a particular topic in the U.S. as well as food production gains or challenges in a developing country around the world. This year the group tied together the needs of production, farmer economic needs in a down cycle and long-term sustainability goals for agriculture. "Our board wanted us to have a stronger focus on the five public-policy areas and really go into those," Margaret Zeigler, executive director of the Global Harvest Initiative, said in an interview with DTN. "And they also wanted to put an emphasis on the current global agricultural cycle." So the Global Harvest Initiative opted to place more emphasis this year on ways to look at the state of farming around the world and what kind of policies or strategies can support farmers during the current ag-business cycle. Zeigler said some of that decision was based on a letter an Iowa farmer sent her last year noting that farmers cannot stay in business when faced with a longer-term trend of lower commodity prices and what that means to food security.