Investors say agroforestry is climate friendly and also profitable
I think that "mixed" farming like this article describes has a huge potential for automation by the software field.<p>Monocrops[0] (homogeneous fields of crops like corn or soybeans) are easy to build automated robots for. We've been doing that for generations now, starting with combine harvesters[1].<p>But there are many problems with growing monocrops[2]. Pests are a problem -- they breed and spread disease. And on the soil nutrient side, you have to keep re-fertilizing (and often over-fertilize[3]) every year to keep it going. And still nutrients continue to decline in the food that Americans are eating[4].<p>If, as a field (of software engineers), we can figure out a way to build robots that allow growing and harvesting plants in heterogeneous environments, that will be a significant step forward to fixing these problems. I'm optimistic that it will be possible in the next decade to build it and make it profitable. :)<p>If you don't have to use fertilizer and pests don't eat your  crops because you haven't created the ideal breeding ground for pests + disease, then this problem should be solved by market forces alone. At least, I hope so!<p>0: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monocropping" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monocropping</a><p>1: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combine_harvester" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combine_harvester</a><p>2: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monocropping#Monocropping_difficulty" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monocropping#Monocropping_diff...</a><p>3: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilizer#Environmental_effects" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilizer#Environmental_effec...</a><p>4: <a href="https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/view/journals/hortsci/44/1/article-p15.xml" rel="nofollow">https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/view/journals/hortsci/44/1...</a>