Thanks capturing this feeling about the early internet and hello from Nigeria.
I am in the process of setting up my farm. Starting with 12 hectares with the plan to increase to 100 in the next 3 years. It’s totally different from tech but interesting.
On the tech side, I am focused on leveling up my fundamental skills so, I finally summoned up the will to begin going through my Elements of computing systems book (on chapter 9 :) ). I must say that it’s been a refreshing experience.
I ask because I have a couple of tiny farms in my life, but can't live near the farms. Curious what other people are doing with "tech and farm" combinations.
No I do not come from a farming background. I don’t intend to live at the farm. I intend to recruit people to run it day to day (labor is still cheap in Africa). Learn and adjust along the way, and if it’s successful, scale it.
Right now, I am speaking with local farmers and putting everything in MS Excel and will use that to set up a management system.
I am watching a lot YouTube best practices videos on the crop am interested in.
When I have lift off at the traditional level, then will I add tech.
Some ideas I have are around moisture monitoring using soil sensors to do JIT micro irrigation as well as pesticides applications. But these are still far off.