MK Group’s CEO, Mihailo Janković, gave a lecture on current challenges in agriculture and food production in Serbia and the world, within the framework of the renowned Forum of Managers organized by the Serbian Association of Managers (SAM).
On that occasion, Mihailo Janković said that since 2015, there has been an increase in global hunger and that 3 billion people have difficulty accessing proper nutrition due to unaffordable prices. “There is more than enough food for everyone, so this is a paradox. The world produces twice as many calories per person as is required, and in 2021 alone, 828 million people went hungry,” said MK Group’s CEO.
In addition to the aforementioned issue, Mihailo Janković identified several other significant global challenges faced by food production and distribution, including the increasing world population, the number of hungry people, and the resulting increase in food needs, supply chains that were disrupted by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, climate change, the scarcity of natural resources, the energy crisis, and the rising costs of inputs like fertilizers and other raw materials. Increasing the agri-food sector’s productivity and boosting resilience to climate change, along with implementing national food security strategies and development policies that promote self-sufficiency and lessen reliance on food imports, are the best ways to address these challenges, according to him.
In particular, with regard to agricultural production in Serbia, he pointed out that modernization and digitization were a prerequisite for smart agriculture of greater efficiency and productivity. “Building processing capabilities and concentrating on products with higher added values, as well as expanding markets to organic and vegetarian food, should be the approach. However, the issues of fragmented property and inadequate irrigation systems remain. Irrigation alone would multiply the yields of arable crops that occupy 60% of agricultural land in Serbia,” concluded Mihailo Janković.
The forum garnered a lot of media attention since it brought together ten corporate leaders from Serbia and the region who shared their perspectives on food and energy as well as long-term trends in employment, sustainability, financial trends, and business. Along with MK Group, other Forum participants included Bloomberg Adria, Atlantic Group, Schneider Electric, A1 Serbia and A1 Slovenia, Raiffeisen Bank, Delta Holding, Alkaloid and Orion Telekom. The Forum was moderated by Dejan Ranđić, General Manager of DNA Communications and founder of ICT Hub.
