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During yesterday's evening walk past a corn field, it occurred to me that the impending roboticization (?) of farming may enable synergistic multiple plant fiel

During yesterday's evening walk past a corn field, it occurred to me that the impending roboticization (?) of farming may enable synergistic multiple plant fields/plantings on a large scale. What was the old (apocryphal, or not?) Native American combination: Corn, squash, and beans? (I'm just going by memory, as I was yesterday evening while walking.) We may be on the edge of a new wave of a more organic farming, on a mass scale. Using plant communities and synergies to reduce or need for the more simplistic, mass application of chemicals. Without even getting into all the genetic engineering and the like that is sure, however you feel about it, to continue.

tda 9y ago
I have also had that idea. Instead of giant machines only capable of harvesting monocultures, couldn't we downscale to small, autonomous vehicles that can farm efficiently on a vegetable garden at scale. Many cheap drones to farm the way our ancestors did using manual labour
- taneq 9y ago
  There's a few indie projects out there now that automate veggie-patch-scale farming. They more often use a large pick-and-place type system than a small rover, though. (Example: FarmBot https://farmbot.io/ https://farmbot.io/ )
- hvidgaard 9y ago
  That would be quite the change. In fact, it could enable many people to produce a lot on their own land, because they don't have to spend all the time doing it.
  - pvaldes 9y ago
    The sound is a problem in this plan. Bees are very sensitive to vibration. They would probably desert any cultured place with drones working continously. Can be avoided if you schedule the drone work, but must be adressed.
    - hvidgaard 9y ago
      For any homesized plot the drone don't have to work all that much, and some of it can probably be done by night. Still something to keep in mind.
    - pasbesoin 9y ago
      I wonder what the range of their sensitivity would be, for various scenarios. If you have a bot passing through every couple of days, would they continue to visit the rest of the field where the bot is not currently present? Very interesting factor to consider and be concerned about.
gyrgtyn 9y ago
The Restoration Agriculture scene might be interesting to you. I can't find a great page to link to, but this has a decent, short description of what they are doing: https://www.forestag.com/pages/mark-shepard https://www.forestag.com/pages/mark-shepard > Trees, shrubs, vines, canes, perennial plants and fungi are planted in association with one another to produce food (for humans and animals), fuel, medicines, and beauty. Hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts and various fruits are the primary woody crops. The farm is entirely solar and wind powered and farm equipment is powered with locally produced biofuels that are not taken from the human food chain. The part that interests me is, they can grow half as much of a crop per acre as a monoculture, but they can do it for like 10 different crops in the same area. And they don't have to spray it with poison, so there are cool things like tree frogs out there.

tda 9y ago

I have also had that idea. Instead of giant machines only capable of harvesting monocultures, couldn't we downscale to small, autonomous vehicles that can farm efficiently on a vegetable garden at scale. Many cheap drones to farm the way our ancestors did using manual labour

taneq 9y ago
There's a few indie projects out there now that automate veggie-patch-scale farming. They more often use a large pick-and-place type system than a small rover, though. (Example: FarmBot https://farmbot.io/ https://farmbot.io/ )
hvidgaard 9y ago
That would be quite the change. In fact, it could enable many people to produce a lot on their own land, because they don't have to spend all the time doing it.
- pvaldes 9y ago
  The sound is a problem in this plan. Bees are very sensitive to vibration. They would probably desert any cultured place with drones working continously. Can be avoided if you schedule the drone work, but must be adressed.
  - hvidgaard 9y ago
    For any homesized plot the drone don't have to work all that much, and some of it can probably be done by night. Still something to keep in mind.
  - pasbesoin 9y ago
    I wonder what the range of their sensitivity would be, for various scenarios. If you have a bot passing through every couple of days, would they continue to visit the rest of the field where the bot is not currently present? Very interesting factor to consider and be concerned about.

gyrgtyn 9y ago

The Restoration Agriculture scene might be interesting to you. I can't find a great page to link to, but this has a decent, short description of what they are doing: https://www.forestag.com/pages/mark-shepard https://www.forestag.com/pages/mark-shepard > Trees, shrubs, vines, canes, perennial plants and fungi are planted in association with one another to produce food (for humans and animals), fuel, medicines, and beauty. Hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts and various fruits are the primary woody crops. The farm is entirely solar and wind powered and farm equipment is powered with locally produced biofuels that are not taken from the human food chain. The part that interests me is, they can grow half as much of a crop per acre as a monoculture, but they can do it for like 10 different crops in the same area. And they don't have to spray it with poison, so there are cool things like tree frogs out there.