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> The need for flatness etc. might become irrelevant with smart enough automation Automation doesn't address the sorts of problems that "not flatness" causes.
by anamax 14y ago
> The need for flatness etc. might become irrelevant with smart enough automation
Automation doesn't address the sorts of problems that "not flatness" causes.
Consider irrigation vs pruning, weeding, or harvesting.
Heck, even "hand watering" (which doesn't make much sense)isn't made appreciably harder by reasonable "not flatness".
> variability in land form could be an excellent risk mitigation strategy against disease and harsh weather conditions or variability in fertilizer prices and so on.
What have you grown?
- jorleif 14y agoI haven't ever seriously grown anything, so I admit not knowing much about commercial agriculture operations, but what I was thinking about was the following kind of tradeoff: You can do one thing (e.g. one crop) very efficiently, if that is the only thing you do, by standardising the operation and using efficient machinery and industrial processes. The downside is that you have all your eggs in the same basket, and compared to growing several crops, the risks are much higher. When it comes to pruning, weeding and harvesting, a sufficiently smart autonomous robot could do those just as well without everything perfectly flat and in evenly spaced rows. However, it is currently much easier and cheaper to do a "stupid" machine that works only in the controlled environment.