By the year
2030
Farmers will have to produce more food than has been grown in the whole of human history.
Global
Agriculture
The biggest job on earth is getting bigger
There has never been a more challenging time in agriculture. But there has also never been a time of greater opportunity. We believe farming is the biggest job on earth. As it gets more complex and more important, we are committed to finding the right balance, so that farmers, our industry and future generations can all flourish.
When you think about what farmers have to face every day, even in difficult times. Always on call, whatever the time, whatever the weather. The pests, the weeds, the diseases. The demands of the crops, the shops. People’s rising expectations, tightening regulations. Feeding an ever-growing population. Looking after nature and the land. Thinking about what they’ll leave to their children and everyone else’s children. It’s no wonder we think that farming is the biggest job on earth.
Comment vi: this is a variant for the infographics with the AEM component "keyfact" used
Global warming could cause a
30%
reduction in food production in many regions.
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United Kingdom
The next stop of our #BiggestJobOnEarth Roadshow is the United Kingdom! Through their biggest job on earth campaign, our colleagues in the UK help people to show their support for farming: Agriculture is fundamental to the world’s well-being and has an impact on the lives of each and every one of us. Still, the value of the biggest job on earth can often be forgotten. At different events and on their website, they’ve asked farmers and the public, why they think farming is the biggest job on earth. Take a look at some of the responses here! As a thank you, participants received a 'Farming, the Biggest Job on Earth' T-shirt to continue to show their support.
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We asked farmers and the public: Why is farming the biggest job on earth?
Our next #BiggestJobOnEarth roadshow stop takes us to Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru! The local campaigns aim to get farmers the attention they deserve: With a video airing on TV Agro, the main streaming television channel for agro business in the region, the faces behind the biggest job on earth and their importance to the world become visible. The campaign’s message is clear: Farmers move the world!
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The Biggest Job On Earth in "TV Agro"
Sound on!
The future of ag needs innovative solutions to enable the #BiggestJobOnEarth. A surprising addition might be the fluttering of bees. Did you know they produce a sound that stimulates flowers which makes them more colorful and with sweeter nectar*? Our BASF teams in Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru recorded the sound of fluttering bees, reproduced it at a frequency of 0.2 to 0.5 kilohertz and mixed it with the music they like most.
As part of their biggest job on earth campaign, they offer the Bee Music to farmers to audition to their crops and orchards. The more beautiful the flowers are, the more bees are attracted – because the biggest job on earth is also to protect the little ones on earth. Curious? Check out Bee Music on Spotify.
*Source: NatGeo
Our next #BiggestJobOnEarth roadshow stop takes us to the Czech Republic, where everything revolves around how farmers in Czech Republic contribute to society - all year round, whatever the time, whatever the weather is. A great occasion to say thank you: As one of their campaign activities, the BASF Czech team wrote a Thank You letter to the country's farmers in a local BASF magazine.
Thank you! – that’s what our colleagues wanted to say to the Czech farmers. The Thank You letter was published in the November-December issue of Agrotip in 2021 (originally in Czech, here in English translation).
BJOE Roadshow CZ Thank You Letter
%20F%20medres_square?dpr=off&fmt=webp-alpha&fit=crop%2C1&wid=1080&hei=1080 "A picture of a farmer standing in a field")
The Czech #BiggestJobOnEarth campaign celebrates and values the work of farmers and their contribution to society, that often remain invisible in everyday life.
The BASF magazine ‘Agrotip’ from our Czech team is published several times a year. Among other things it provides ag news, information around crop protection and reports from events and farmers.
BJOE Roadshow CZ agrotip Magazine
Ag facts for awareness
Farmers and their contribution to society often remain invisible in everyday life, even though everyone encounters ag products daily. How can people get more engaged with agriculture and the role farmers play in putting food on everyone’s table? Take a look at these great infographics from the Czech #BiggestJobOnEarth campaign that explain some interesting ag facts from inside & outside of Czech Republic. Did you know that up to 95% of the ingredients used for food production originate from soil?
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Campaign video: Do you know who has the biggest job on earth? - Czech Republic
The next stop of our #BiggestJobOnEarth Roadshow is China! A highlight activity of the local campaign was the impressive outdoor advertising that covered key cities of China’s major agricultural regions: Nanjing, Guangzhou, Jinan, and Hefei. From east to west, from south to north, “Farming, Biggest Job On Earth (种植，何止了不起!)” was shining on the fronts of skyline buildings. The illumination aimed to make people in the cities aware of the commitment and value of farmers & farming to our daily life.
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-2?dpr=off&fmt=webp-alpha&fit=crop%2C1&wid=1080&hei=1080 "A picture of a skyscraper at night")
An excellent day in the field
Since 2012, China has held AgCelence Day annually and strives to engage more than 10,000 growers every year. As part of the #BiggestJobOnEarth campaign, around 250 local farmers of Shandong province have been invited to participate in the AgCelence Day field activities that ranged from expert presentations to field study Q&As. In addition to the visitors in Shandong, the event was livestreamed to more than 28,000 growers from different provinces.
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Growing with our next generation of growers
A topic close to the heart of our team in China! That’s why they created the program “Grow with BASF”, aiming to pass our passion for the #BiggestJobOnEarth to the next generation. As part of their campaign, our Chinese colleagues are partnering with local customers and volunteers to visit primary schools in rural provinces. Apart from providing stationary and colorful educational materials, they do playful and interactive workshops to teach the children about the needs of farmers, as well as sustainable and modern digital farming practices.
#BiggestJobOnEarth roadshow takes us now to South America: Argentina! With the local deployment "Connected through the land", our campaign celebrates farmers and farming and provides visibility to the challenges they face while stating the role of farmers in society.
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Campaign video - Connected through land, Argentina
Argentina is a country with an extensive territory and producers are distributed throughout it. Many farms are located near small towns or villages. The #BiggestJobOnEarth roadshow bus offers a place for exchange of information about products and solutions as well as building up connections.
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With the campaign “Connected through land” we would like to highlight the importance and create the awareness of sustainable agriculture and how farmers in Argentina are committed to the global food supply. Together with the Food Bank of Tandil (Buenos Aires) families in need obtained food donated. A great achievement!
The next stop of our #BiggestJobOnEarth roadshow is Germany! In their campaign our colleagues spotlighted farmers in a new theme each month.
They demonstrated that farmers have passion for what they do - and that it is more than just a profession: Farmers are nutritional experts, soil protectors, logisticians, business economists, crisis managers, and much more. This is only possible with balance in several respects: in the many tasks on the farm as well as in the balance with society and nature. Farmers take on this great challenge with professional know-how to bring higher productivity, environmental protection and social benefit into harmony.
Explore our slide show and learn more about what drives them!
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Healthy Diet
"Everyone is discussing healthy eating - which starts in the field."
Steffen Meyer
Soil Protection
"Soil protection has many faces and aims to enhance all soil life."
Phillip Krainbring
Entrepreneurship
"We have specialized in the niche products of hops and seed potatoes, are doing well in the markets and have proven our position."
Christian Kügel
Biodiversity
"Biodiversity means walking through nature with your eyes open. That's the only way to recognize where measures make sense."
Jana and Thomas Gäbert
Public Relations
"I got into public dialogues because I've always been very bothered by the image of agriculture in society."
Malte Messerschmidt
Digitalization
"The smartphone is my central work tool because it gives me weather forecasts and crop infection pressure prediction models at a glance."
Dominik Bellaire
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Biodiversität / Biodiversity
English video subtitle available
Creating valuable habitats
One example for the major challenges farmers face, is how to secure biodiversity in large-scale farming. The agricultural cooperative Trebbin, 20 kilometers south of Berlin, demonstrates how this works!
As part of #TheBiggestJobOnEarth campaign in Germany, Jana and Thomas Gäbert gave insights in the remarkable concept implemented on their approximately 4,000 hectares of farmland. They show that cultural landscape and biodiversity are compatible and that some species are even only present where land is used for agriculture.
Biodiversity is completely integrated in their structures and processes, from individual measures to networked habitats for wildlife and plants. For the two farmers, biodiversity in the cultivated landscape is not a duty, but a task they fulfill with passion and competence.
Proud of the biggest job on earth
Fulfilling many roles at once I not easy – and famers take up this great challenge with professional know-how. That’s why our German team started a contest as part of their #BiggestJobOnEarth campaign, which calls on farmers across the country to show what makes them proud. Explore some of the winners here.
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Tradition
For Sarah Harff-Cassel, tradition on her farm means many things: from family power and cohesion to preserving nature and sitting together as a team after a day of harvesting. It is important to her to continue and value the farm - as well as the traditional customs of her ancestors - and to develop them attractively with her own signature.
Digitalization
To make day-to-day farming easier, Christoph Meyer relies on digitalization on the family-run farm. Their food vending machines, where customers can buy fresh products around the clock, use cloud-based telemetry and cashless payment. And on the 150 hectares of arable land, the family also works with digital services such as GPS correction for more precise soil cultivation. Without digitalization, many opportunities would remain closed to the family.
Public Relations
Public relations work is very important for the Becker family as winegrowers. For the past 14 years, they have held their annual ‘Children Vineyard’ (German: "Kinderwingert"), with up to 30 children from non-farming families, to bring them closer to the work of winegrowing.
Farming
Matthias brings children closer to the field work of a farmer. In his book 'The Year of the Farmer', children can discover the tasks of farming throughout the year. The book is also specially designed to be read aloud, bringing the family together.
As one of their campaign highlights, our Polish colleagues conducted the photo competition "365 T- shirts for 365 days of work of farmers" asking farmers to send a picture wearing their campaign T-shirt. Great results, aren't they? Click for more pics!
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Wojciech Szczawiński
Lucyna Kohut
Wlodek Mazur
Magda Buda
Szymon Kamiński
Sebastian Baśladyński
Elzbieta Rojowska
Mariusz Koziński
Kacper Durkowski
Julia Stromczyńska
Jan Drobniuch
Hanna Żmuda-Trzebiatowska
Bogusław Momot
Michał Stolkowski
Together with AgriNet 24, our Polish team conducted a survey with 324 polish farmers in June 2021. The aim of the study was to check how farmers perceive their work, role and social position in relation to other social and professional groups in the country. In addition, the study allowed to learn about the attitudes and opinions of farmers in the field of their profession and in relation to their farm and agricultural perspective. Click through the graphics for exciting insights into the thoughts of the Polish farmers!
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Farming in the eyes of kids. Here the awareness starts! Look at these great pictures of the #BiggestJobOnEarth drawn by the little ones of our Polish team colleagues. Food and agriculture is the basis for humankind – only together we can find the right balance for success for future generations!
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Advocacy campaign – At the heart of BASF in ag relaunch since 2013
‘Farming, the biggest job on earth’ is BASF’s advocacy campaign for farmers and farming relaunched in May 2021. The campaign was launched in 2013, prompted by our 2011 ‘Farm Perspectives’ study, which showed us there was a significant job to do to improve awareness and attitudes towards farmers and farming. Since then, in more and more markets, the campaign has taken a stand to support farmers driving positive reputation of BASF in Agriculture across the globe. It has helped grow greater understanding of farming, speaking to and for farmers about the vital and increasingly complex job they do. Farmers have never faced greater challenges and complexity. Thanks to fast-moving improvements in science, technology, products and practices, there have never been so many opportunities to change things for the better.
Please click on the hot spot (+) of your choice to learn more about the campaign history.
Right balance for success
Agriculture is so central to our lives that it has a powerful impact on us all. It’s also an industry undergoing a time of unprecedented change. Farmers have an increasingly difficult, but also increasingly important role to balance the need for increased productivity, environmental protection and value to society. As farming challenges get bigger and more complex, it’s even more important to work together find the right balance for success – for farmers, for agriculture and for future generations.
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We can all help to find the right balance
As a society, we can take time to consider where our food comes from, to respect and value the work of farmers around the world. As a business, BASF is helping farmers to manage the many different demands they face with innovative science and technology and sustainable, practical action. Working together to help find the right balance for success for farming, for agriculture and for future generations.
Why you shouldn’t take your food flat rate for granted
Living in South Africa as a kid certainly shaped me to become the person I am today. A person that is grateful for this precious life on our planet Earth. Imagine a fridge filled with fresh groceries such as vegetables, fruits, milk, eggs, meat. Imagine the same groceries thrown into the trash. One by one. Hard to accept such imagination, isn’t it?
Turning increasing complexity into more opportunities
For farmers it isn’t just about feeding today’s population but about better living, better health, better education, better perspectives. How can yield be increased in a way that is seen as kind to the planet, whilst helping farmers earn a living? Thanks innovative technologies, climate-smart and eco-friendly solutions the increasing complexity provides also a lot opportunities for sustainable faming.
Explore related topics
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Right Balance For Success
As farming challenges get bigger and more complex, it’s even more important to find the right balance for success – for farmers, for agriculture and for future generations. Watch our film.