It may sound like science fiction, but in a few short years the family dinner table may be laden with steak from a printer and other proteins produced from air, methane or volcanic microbes.

“Whether it’s the initial metal hoe and ox plough, manually dug dykes in Mali’s [Ségou Region], or computerised, drip irrigation in California’s almond farms, technology has always been a key driver of agriculture. This isn’t new,” said Chris Arsenault, food security correspondent for Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Electric motors are not new, but they have yet to make inroads when it comes to heavy-duty farm work.

20 years ago already, Garford was one of the first companies to offer visual cameras for the guidance of inter-row cultivators in row crops.

Our society has become digital to a point where, without a smartphone or a computer, our capacity to do anything is severely restricted.

A new tool developed by a University of Minnesota research team allows farmers to create a budget balance sheet of any nitrogen reduction plans and see the economic and environmental cost, return and margins, all customised to fields under their management.