Insects, diseases and weeds are a farmer’s worst nightmare — pests cause severe crop damage and jeopardize harvests.

The agriculture industry influences many sectors of the economy locally as well as internationally.

Human beings have been obsessed with the concept of intelligence and have developed various instruments to understand and measure it. Intelligence is essentially the use of the brain to understand complex and diverse phenomena.

One way to improve profitability, is to reduce input costs. When it comes to maize, one of those inputs – and a particularly significant one at that – is nitrogen fertiliser. But how much could you save if your maize, like legumes, could fix its own nitrogen?

As the backbone of developing economies, agriculture not only serves to feed a nation but creates employment and, often, contributes significantly to the GDP.

“Perhaps it is because I grew up in the suburbs and have never lived outside of one of South Africa’s major cities, but it seems like agriculture often doesn’t get the credit it deserves.