War, extreme weather and aging workers makes farming a tough job

Growing the food the world needs isn't easy.

From America's Midwest — where hi-tech machinery works giant fields — to outdated tracts of land in India, growers face headache after headache. The challenges range from what farmers call unfair trade and crop prices to extreme weather and an aging workforce.

In the short term, the fallout is fueling protests, causing dilemmas for politicians and threatening to make some groceries even more expensive. But in the longer term, the farming issues highlight the difficulties the world faces in feeding a growing population and battling a hunger crisis.

Here's a roundup of how and where farmers are feeling the heat:

Shrinking Farms in the US

The number of farms in America is shrinking as growers get older and producing crops becomes a lot more expensive. The US had 1.9 million farms in 2022, a 6.9% drop from five years ago and the lowest since at least 1992, government data show. The total acreage used in farms fell about 2.2%. Meanwhile, the average age of producers continued to climb, reaching 58.1 years in 2022.

Total farm production expenses jumped 30% over the period, as costs including labor, feed and fertilizer all rose. Tumbling crop prices are giving farmers less money to spend on equipment.

India's Hobbled Farmers

Ill-equipped to feed 1.4 billion people, India's mostly small-scale farming industry is hobbled by low yields and hostage to an increasingly unpredictable climate. The frustration of farmers reached boiling point this month and thousands began marching on Delhi to press their demands for debt relief and crop price guarantees.

Angry European Growers

The region's farmers have a long list of worries. They include rising costs of inputs like fuel, trade agreements signed or planned with countries that don't have the same stringent environmental rules, or cheap grain coming from Ukraine.

But their major focus is on the EU's plan to make the continent carbon neutral by 2050 and improve biodiversity. Farmers can't raise prices far enough to offset their higher costs as powerful retailers push back to protect their profit margins. Even in France — which has some of Europe's highest food prices — contracts signed with retailers this year have left some farmers selling at a loss.

Africa's Bitter Harvest

Cocoa farmers in West Africa are among the latest to bear the brunt of climate change. While the region is usually ideal for growing beans, growers have been buffeted by extremes lately. Conditions were too wet at the start of the growing season, but now they are too dry.

On Valentine's Day, prices were near a recent record high. They've doubled over the past year and there's little sign of the surge easing soon.

Agriculture has become a key battleground in a wider culture war over money, food and climate change. On paper, agriculture's contribution to the global economy is small relative to services and industry. Farming accounts for less than 2% of gross domestic product in the EU and just 1% in the US, while employing some 3% of the workforce in high-income countries, an ever-declining trend. Yet farming resonates more in an era of concern about food supplies and as prices remain a key worry for voters.

Disclaimer: This article first appeared on Bloomberg, and is published by a special syndication arrangement.