All the talk recently about the successes of Project Better Place in transforming the mainstream transportation market for private vehicles has understandably overshadowed other niche markets that can benefit from injections of clean technologies. 
One of those niches is that for industrial machinery that is used in agriculture and agricultural transport. Modern industrial agriculture is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, and contributes significantly to the regional carbon footprint of the U.S., the European Union, Australia, and increasingly, China.
According to the Independent Science Panel, agriculture is responsible for 25% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, 60% of methane gas emissions and 80% of nitrous oxide. According to its report on agriculture and global warming,
the most energy-intensive components of modern industrial agriculture are the production of nitrogen fertiliser, farm machinery and pumped irrigation. They account for more than 90% of the total direct and indirect energy used in agriculture…It has been estimated that to produce a tonne of cereals or vegetables by means of modern agriculture requires 6 to 10 times more energy than by using sustainable agricultural methods.
