Tech is taking over. Are you embracing the changes?

Incredible new technologies emerge almost daily, providing great opportunities for those who have the courage to exploit them. In contrast, those who ignore these advances face great risk, says Peter Hughes.

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´In this issue's 'Field Notes', Mbali Nwoko identifies new technology as one of the trends in agriculture to watch. She's not exaggerating; we're in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is spawning mindboggling new technology, transforming the world in ways we could never have imagined in years gone by.

Take the humble bean. As you know, it's a legume, and legumes provide much of their own nitrogen through the process of nitrogen fixation. Legumes provide nutrients to bacteria in return for nitrogen harvested from the air, and as a result need far less synthetic fertiliser.

In recent years, scientists in the US have been 'teaching' non-legume crops the same trick. By rearranging the DNA of a given microbe, they have succeeded in getting crops such as wheat and maize to source nitrogen from the air.

It sounds like science fiction, but it's not. It's happening, and at least two commercial organisations, Joyn Bio and Pivot Bio, are well on their way to releasing products to achieve this.

Another breakthrough has scientists shaking their heads in disbelief. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have boosted rice yields by up to 40% by giving a Chinese variety a second copy of one of its own genes.