Meet the President: Kit Franklin on the future of agricultural engineering

In this Landwards episode, IAgrE President Kit Franklin joins host Andy Newbold to share his journey into agricultural engineering and his vision for the Institution’s future.

Growing up on a family farm in Cirencester, Kit combined a love of maths, science, and design with agriculture, leading him to Harper Adams and a degree in Agricultural Engineering. He arrived wanting to design “big shiny tractors,” but left with a passion for autonomous, smaller, and more precise machinery and the wider farming system.

Kit describes his work at Harper Adams as a researcher and lecturer, including leading the groundbreaking Hands Free Farm project – the world’s first hectare of crop grown entirely using autonomous machines. Now, having recently split his time between Harper Adams, a US university attachment, the family farm, and podcasting on agri‑tech, he outlines how these experiences shape his presidency.

As President, Kit plans to be hands‑on, focusing on:

• improving member networking via the new IAgrE website;
• tackling slow but steady membership decline;
• raising IAgrE’s profile through member stories, LinkedIn, and timely responses to policy announcements;
• better engaging the agri‑tech community and inspiring young people into agricultural engineering.

He reflects on how technologies like RTK guidance have moved from cutting‑edge to everyday consumer tools in under two decades, while insisting that fundamental mechanical and civil engineering skills remain essential in a physical, field-based world. The conversation closes with a more personal reveal: behind the rock and dance music fan is someone with a soft spot for Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”—and an open-door attitude to IAgrE members’ ideas.

Key Takeaways

• How childhood interests in design and farming led Kit into agricultural engineering.
• The story and impact of the Hands Free Farm autonomous cropping project.
• Kit’s presidential priorities: networking, membership growth, visibility, and policy engagement.
• Why agri‑tech professionals and young people are critical to IAgrE’s future.
• How fast automation and RTK tech have evolved—and why nuts, bolts, spades, and soil still matter.