Cultivation,seeding and weed control are fundamental to arable production.In the developed world these activities use increasingly large machinery with tyres or tracks that damage the soil by compaction.The large machines use fossil fuels for power,but as fuel reserves are finite,increasingly expensive and contribute to Greenhouse Gas Emissions alternatives are needed.In the developing world cultivation,seeding and weeding are equally important,but farmers with small,poorly connected land-holdings can neither afford nor use large machines or expensive fossil fuels.