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There is a short explanation on why heterogeneous cropping is not the norm : Harvesting is just extremely difficult. It's not just a software automation problem

by Fiahil 6y ago

There is a short explanation on why heterogeneous cropping is not the norm : Harvesting is just extremely difficult. It's not just a software automation problem, it's building the machinery and tractors, training people, gathering feedbacks... Even if you manage to repetitively grow successful combinations of produces, that's only the beginning of the journey. Farming is an far older industry than software engineering, don't you think humans already tried that in the past 10 000 years ?

freeqaz 6y ago
It is a hard problem. Historically, people often grew plants in heterogeneous environments because they grew their own crops. Even if it wasn't _all_ of their food, it was still a subset of their food. But it was very labor intensive. The scale of monocrop farming today with modern tractors is a very new field as well (no pun intended). With machine learning specifically, I can see a robot arm being able to farm a lot of mixed crops. This is already happening for the most labor-intensive crops like strawberries[0]. Robots are cheap and can work 24/7. I think it just a matter of time before computers advance enough to be able to perform the basic, repetitive tasks that humans are able to. 0: https://www.therobotreport.com/strawberry-picking-robot-maker-raises-75m/ https://www.therobotreport.com/strawberry-picking-robot-make...
- Fiahil 6y ago
  This very interesting piece might be of interest for you : https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/how-to-pick-a-pepper/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/how-to-pick-a-pepper/ It took one of the protagonist ten years of testing to find a machine capable of harvesting special-bread peppers. The breakthrough your are looking for isn't for software engineering only - or even at all -. It's a combination of mechanical engineering, biology and hacking. Venture-led startups often lead to short-lived niche products made to impress silicon valley. It's not sustainable, and it's not the future.
- deleted 6y ago
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dtwest 6y ago
Software gives the agriculture industry new tools, it helps gather information, it helps build better machinery and can even help train people. Of course software engineers won't be the only ones contributing to solving these problems, but farmers are very resourceful and tend to welcome any new tools to improve their businesses. They've been improving for the last 10,000 years, why stop now?
reggieband 6y ago
> don't you think humans already tried that in the past 10 000 years ? Often what you are saying is true. Except in this case we have access to new technologies that have only existed for a small percentage of that 10,000 years. It might be worth re-examining what we think we know about growing food in light of these new technologies. That is, things that would have been ideal but were practically impossible may now be possible.

by Fiahil 6y ago

freeqaz 6y ago

It is a hard problem. Historically, people often grew plants in heterogeneous environments because they grew their own crops. Even if it wasn't _all_ of their food, it was still a subset of their food. But it was very labor intensive. The scale of monocrop farming today with modern tractors is a very new field as well (no pun intended). With machine learning specifically, I can see a robot arm being able to farm a lot of mixed crops. This is already happening for the most labor-intensive crops like strawberries[0]. Robots are cheap and can work 24/7. I think it just a matter of time before computers advance enough to be able to perform the basic, repetitive tasks that humans are able to. 0: https://www.therobotreport.com/strawberry-picking-robot-maker-raises-75m/ https://www.therobotreport.com/strawberry-picking-robot-make...

Fiahil 6y ago
This very interesting piece might be of interest for you : https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/how-to-pick-a-pepper/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/how-to-pick-a-pepper/ It took one of the protagonist ten years of testing to find a machine capable of harvesting special-bread peppers. The breakthrough your are looking for isn't for software engineering only - or even at all -. It's a combination of mechanical engineering, biology and hacking. Venture-led startups often lead to short-lived niche products made to impress silicon valley. It's not sustainable, and it's not the future.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

dtwest 6y ago

Software gives the agriculture industry new tools, it helps gather information, it helps build better machinery and can even help train people. Of course software engineers won't be the only ones contributing to solving these problems, but farmers are very resourceful and tend to welcome any new tools to improve their businesses. They've been improving for the last 10,000 years, why stop now?

reggieband 6y ago

> don't you think humans already tried that in the past 10 000 years ? Often what you are saying is true. Except in this case we have access to new technologies that have only existed for a small percentage of that 10,000 years. It might be worth re-examining what we think we know about growing food in light of these new technologies. That is, things that would have been ideal but were practically impossible may now be possible.