All in all, crop production remains a tight margin business, some – mainly EU farms – even struggle to cover their cash and depreciation costs. By contrast most typical farms in Argentina, Canada, Russia and Ukraine were profitable in 2017. Sugar cane and sugar beet production is suffering substantially because of the sharp and ongoing decline in global prices.

Wheat production in developed countries often performs poorly compared to other crops in the rotations resulting in growers in the USA or Canada reducing their wheat acreage.
EU farmers are forced by weed and pest resistances and tighter environmental regulation to broaden their rotations. The French agri benchmark partner Baptiste Dubois states: “On-farm research reveals that wider rotations and changes in tillage systems can not only save crop care products and reduce the likelihood of new resistances but also increase profits.”

The farm tours in China revealed strong financial support for crop producers (particularly coops) including: import tariffs, minimum prices, area payments and input subsidies to stimulate production.
As of 2016 the Chinese government encouraged 44 million farmers to enlist in cooperatives – to a large degree focusing on production - and conglomerates (basically private companies) – up from 1.3 million in 2008.

Orawan Srisompun, co-author of a report for FAO and Thai agri benchmark partner: “The Thai cassava chip and starch value chains provide important income-earning opportunities to rural households, not only in primary production, but also in contracting services and – to a lesser degree - in processing”. Processing for cassava chips is a small-scale but profitable enterprise, while processing for starch relies on significant investment and development of infrastructure to handle the large volumes of cassava required. The evolution of the Thai cassava sector provides some suggestions for how African countries may develop cassava as a cash crop to improve smallholder incomes.
The respective report can be downloaded here
(pdf-document, 2,4 MB).

Michael Langemeier, agri benchmark partner from Indiana, USA, presented his analysis on the competitiveness of corn vs. soy in the US corn belt. It turns out that current price ratios very much favor the corn-soy rotation in that part of the world. Only if US soybean prices were hit by more than 10 % (app. 35 USD/t) - and corn prices remain unchanged – would farmers possibly consider moving to a corn-corn-soy rotation. As Langemeier states, “As of now, such a sharp drop in relative prices seems to be unlikely. I don’t foresee major changes in cropping patterns even with turmoil in global soy trade.”

Researchers focused in the European portion of Russia investigate the potential for growth in oilseed crops in four major European regions in Russia: The Northern and Southern parts of the Black Soil Region, South Russia and the Volga region.
A review of typical farm economics and the opinions of experts in the field establish the basis for projecting the choices and developments farmers face in the run up to 2025.

Russian oilseeds generally produce positive margins and rank well compared with other crops.
Despite high overall shares in rotations, sunflowers acreage is likely to increase, although we believe a reduction in sunflower acreage is likely in some regions and, in fact, there are signals that this trend has already started. Adoption of more intensive practices leading to higher yields will be fundamental to further growth in the sunflower sector.
Soybeans and rapeseed are relatively new crops for most regions in Russia and hence yields tend to be low. But both crops have seen a tremendous growth in acreage and yield. Like sunflowers, soybeans offer a low-cost, higher margin alternative for producers, whereas rapeseed requires a larger up-front investment in crop inputs.
For both the newer crops producers face a learning curve. It is likely that current growth could continue into 2025.