Your points are valid and your solution would work (especially the part about watering for a total of an hour by automatically taking into consideration power c

Your points are valid and your solution would work (especially the part about watering for a total of an hour by automatically taking into consideration power cuts, etc). I wonder if there may have been an 'environmental' reason for his solution (and hence his bad patches). I lived in a couple of third world countries in the 1980s (in Asia and Africa) and came over to the US in the early 90's for studies. One of the stores that my electronics class prof introduced me to was Radio Shack. I could not believe it - for an electronics tinkerer there was nothing better. Everything you needed to build your (small) dream device seemed to be there (tools like soldering irons, bread boards, capacitors, etc). And they were pretty cheap to boot. That ease of access to equipment is not available in third world countries. So the solutions you come up use the accessible 'raw materials' available in your environment. It may not be the most simple, or elegant, but it is something that works. To the farmer the underlying technology is understandable and accessible. And testable with a phone call!