An introduction to risk mitigation in farming: Part 1

Farmers face the most serious risks experienced in the total value chain of food production. In this first part of a new series, PJ Mommsen, a freelance strategist, looks at the less common of these risks

- PJ Mommsen

In many respects, agriculture in general, and farming in particular, are peculiar sectors of the economy. Farmers have to solve diverse challenges, as well as manage and mitigate countless threats, many of which present existential risk.

In Part 1 of this series of articles, I shall discuss farming as a pioneering venture, then consider some of the less obvious risks facing sheep farmers in particular. Many of the risks faced daily by farmers threaten the very existence of farms as going concerns, together with the livelihoods of entire farming communities. This permanent state of pioneering, of being at the frontier of food production, is what makes the business of farming uniquely high-risk.

Farming is a frontline business in the sense that it alone has to mitigate and manage the most serious risks encountered through the total value chain of the production of food products and many other products used in commerce and industry.

SECURITY RISKS 

Consider the significant difference in the nature, scope and scale of security risks faced by, for example, a retail butchery compared with those of the farmer producing the meat, and the lengths and costs to which the farmer must go to mitigate security risks.