Tom Allen-Stevens travels forward to 2030 and looks for the farmers who would emerge strengthened if the bubble burst on the carbon market. Here in 2030, it’s very easy to claim the benefit of hindsight. But it’s fair to say few could have foreseen the depth of the scars that would lash the farming landscape …
Tom Allen-Stevens travels forward to 2030 and looks back at what progress has been made since 2024 to improve agricultural productivity. What goes around comes around, it seems. The debate about food security and nanotechnology that we’re currently having in the first few months of 2030 has echoes of a very similar discussion that preoccupied …
A change in English law now allows certain gene-edited crops to be grown on commercial farms. Tech Farmer visits the scientists working with a new farmer-led platform that will make the first three introductions. Rarely would you find so many misfits in the same place. Looking closely you can see spikelets within a wheat ear …
Wild plants could hold the genetic key to a step change in productivity across major agricultural crops. Tech Farmer visits the labs of a new start-up that’s sifting through the genomes.
The World FIRA event near Toulouse, France, brought together agricultural robotic enthusiasts from across the globe. Tech Farmer was there to spot the bots with promising potential. With 35 autonomous solutions on display and demonstrated, more than 70 exhibitors and 2500 visitors, World FIRA (Forum for Agricultural Robotics) is gradually establishing its reputation as the …
The discovery of a grass that makes its own antibiotics may have wide-reaching implications for restoring soil health and improving water quality. Tech Farmer considers the implications of the trait for UK wheats. There’s a type of grass that thrives in the tropical pastures of Colombia that confounded scientists for decades. Brachiaria has been dubbed …
Tom Allen-Stevens travels forward to 2030 and imagines what prospects agri-tech pioneers will have. In just a few days it will be 2030 – for over a decade, this has been seen as something of a milestone year in farming’s journey to Net Zero. It also seems a good point to look back on the …
Concentrated light technology has passed proof of concept as a form of weed control and is being developed through field trials. Tech Farmer sees the Earth Rover ‘CLAWS’ in action. By Tom Allen-Stevens CLAWS moves forward, a little more than 0.5m, and stops. There’s a flash from under the hood which lights up the young …
The Government has set out a strong desire for the UK to be an agri-tech powerhouse. Tech Farmer looks behind the ministerial announcements to what they may mean for on-farm R&D. By Tom Allen-Stevens UK Agriculture is set to get an Agri-Tech Catapult, following the announcement by the Government that three of the four Agri-Tech …
Written by Tom Allen-Stevens Balbirnie Home Farms in Fife, Scotland, has been on a regenerative agriculture journey, testing aspects of this within its role as an AHDB Strategic Cereal Farm. A tour of the estate highlights its natural capital assets, helping to determine its carbon baseline and the opportunities to develop. Standing at the edge …
