“...farming on Mars may not remain sci-fi fantasy for very long: The NASA-backed Potatoes on Mars project just grew tubers in Mars-like conditions, suggesting Watney’s feat might be possible.”
Link:
http://www.businessinsider.com/potatoes-mars-growth-cubesat-experiment-2017-3
In reality there is no advantage to “going to Mars”. In the absence of a magnetic field the planet cannot be “terreformed”. So there is no advantage to growing potatoes on Mars over growing potatoes on a platform in space. In fact, Mars just adds a gravity well into the equation making the potatoes just that much more “expensive”. The only thing Mars offers is gravity and that can be simulated with angular momentum. No reason to go to Mars whatsoever outside of archeology and anthropology.