Land Analysis: The Real and Artificial Intelligence Way

The Way we went about Studying the Land

LAND STUDY

8/11/20264 min read

Understanding your land is one of the most important aspect before starting anything.

Our land doesn’t look like a text book farm. Rather it is undulating terrain with flat land, with hills, with trenches, with stony patches, with slope at places as much as 60 degrees. Some idea you can get by seeing the video of our land in ‘The Land’ Page. So understanding the land was most important for us. As a matter of fact it is the most important aspect for anyone having any kind of land. Even a text book farm land should be well understood before starting any planning.

One of the best source of information is your neighbours. Sitting with them over tea or beedi can reveal to you so much about your land. The people in rural areas are much more generous than the city folk. Neighbours with coconut trees will always offer one. So it’s not just tea or beedi, it may also be tender coconut some time. So for us as well one of the most important source of information about our land was our neighbours.

We have one neighbour ajja who can till date survey farms with his feet. And his markings are as good as the ones done by revenue officials. The elders of the village know the history. One another thing that will amaze you when you interact locally is their knowledge of Vaastu Sashtra.

So primary information about the water flow through our farm we gathered from our neighbours. They don’t just tell you the normal things, they will also remember the extremes. They will tell of some rain which came once in ten years and then how the land looked and then where the water flowed and what flooded. They know the catchment, where the water comes from and where it goes and how much comes. This knowledge is very important to plan your farm. Specially in a place like Challakere where water is the most valuable commodity, understanding water flow is most important.

We didn’t limit ourselves to this though. We used AI as well. As a matter of fact we found AI also very helpful. To understand the water flow you can not understand it just by looking at your own land only. You need to look around. So we used AI to study the gradient of our farm vis a vis gradient of surrounding land upto 5 Kms radius. The AI searched for some satellite data which was not readily available on most commonly knows platforms. It created a gradient map of the land and the surrounding areas. As a matter of fact, the analysis of this map was also done by AI itself. And to my pleasant surprise the analysis done by AI was spot on. It totally was in agreement what the most neighbours told. I am reproducing a sample gradient mapping done by AI below.

Another interesting thing that AI did for us was it made an animation for our farm of the wind direction and speed in our farm month wise. That also was pretty spot on. How does that help us? That helps us in deciding on the planting of wind barrier plants and trees. I am sharing one same video of wind profile for our farm generated by the AI below.

Well these are just a few things that AI did for us. We are very actively using AI in our farm work. We will keep sharing try details in or subsequent posts.

Understanding the soil is another crucial aspect. Our land being undulated has so many types of soils. There is no one type. While on the hillocks the soil is red and rocky. Another hillock it has large lime. The lower part where water stagnates before exiting our farm, the soil has become clayey. Another hillock gas weathered type of soil. Some area is filled up with crushed rocks, remember some area that was moved by the earlier owner to make land look flat.

Each part of the land has to be treated differently. Once you want to do natural farming and raise a food forest, you need to talk to your land. Understand it. And plan.

We also did some little experiments to understand our soul. In the worst soil patch to our understanding, we grew some mixture of seeds in a 10 feet by 10 feet. That told us a lot about that soil.

One another most important things that teaches about the land we feel is just walking across your land. Walking slow. Observing. The wild vegetation, the texture of soil , they tell you a lot about that part of land. Another interesting and enriching experience is walking across your land with some of your neighbour each time. They have immense knowledge. They have a lot to teach. After all they have been Practicing farming for most of their lives. Though you are going to do something they have never done, farming without chemical, still their insights are valuable. They know a lot.

So that’s a little about the water, soil and wind. Some glimpse into our study. The learning about your land, what we have understood, is a continuous process. Also we are taking it slow, moving organically.

Thanks for reading and Good Day.