The first Groceries Code Adjudicator, Christine Tacon has called for an increased focus on agricultural engineering to support an increase in food production.

Speaking during a presentation to students at the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing, Tacon insisted that farming techniques such as sustainable intensification and engineering advances should be championed ahead of GM crops.

“There is a whole branch of engineering we haven’t even started to look at and if you look closely at the science behind GM, it can actually help us to better understand the natural plant and how to get more out of it; it is misguided to think the only answer to feeding a rising population is GM crops,” said Tacon.

She added: “There are currently only 700 Chartered Agricultural Engineers, yet tens of thousands in other disciplines and this has to change.”

Citing Japan, which is currently only 40 per cent self-sufficient in its food production and as a result is pioneering the use of robotics, Tacon also stressed to students the benefits of both satellites, which can be used to analyse field disease and soil health, and robotics to aid fruit and vegetable production.

“We currently struggle to get people to work on farms and interest is dwindling among migrant workers; machines can help to fill the gap,” explained Tacon.

Tacon was full of praise for a new range of robots (pictured) currently being developed by engineer David Dorhout, which are designed to plant seeds while coordinating with a gang of other field robots. The farm robots are also being developed to weed, fertilise and harvest. “The farmer is like the shepherd that gives the robot instructions,” said Dorhout of the technology.

Meanwhile, farming union Unite, which is currently fighting to save the Agricultural Wages Board, has written to Tacon and urged her to probe the major supermarkets’ relationships with their suppliers and the pressure they exert to drive down labour costs.

Unite’s Julia Long said: “This will reveal if the new ombudsman has real teeth to right injustices and inequalities in the major supermarkets’ relationships with their suppliers which, in turn, impacts, currently adversely, on those working on the land.”