The Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in Johannesburg aims to help build South Africa’s science, engineering and technology capacity, especially through activities with learners. Professor Dave Berger of FABI's Molecular Plant-Pathogen Interactions (MPPI) research group presented a public lecture facilitated by the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) entitled “The future of farming – drones, smart breeding and genome editing” at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre.  The talk covered the crop molecular breeding research being carried out in the MPPI research group, a view of exciting developments in unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) monitoring of crops, and the promise of genome editing. For the benefit of the learners in the audience (from the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls) the talk also featured some role models in Biotechnology – local academics, researchers and entrepreneurs.