Computerized cabbage and carrots: how do you feel about that?
Virginia Tech helps develop smart farm in Roanoke County - wdbj7.com
Virginia Tech is adding the Smart Farm to the Smart Road (ahem) in its bag of tricks. They don’t say how much wire, microprocessors (with their externalized costs) and rare earths are involved in testing and measuring the moisture and nutrients of the ordinary earth through which miles and miles of wire would pass under the vegetable rows. I feel certain the average small-scale farmer couldn’t buy such a system now on the income from ten years worth of sales.
My first thought was that it would take me about a half hour to chop cables in two with my big hoe. How do you plant wires and then avoid them? I’m sure they’ve thought of that.
ah, this reminds me of a friend who lived in a village without mains sewerage and whose neighbour stuck a garden fork at regular intervals through their waste pipe. It wasn’t until a pool of raw sewage collected at the bottom of the garden that they realised their mistake.
Is it not possible to test the soil by less high-tech means?
I am no farmer but…