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Life has a curious way of coming full circle. On my desk rest two objects that symbolize this journey: my laptop filled with code and a well-worn copy of John Seymour's "The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency," a book that has accompanied me since childhood and was inherited from my grandfather.

Roots

I grew up in Argentina, in a house where the backyard was more than just a green space—it was our small productive ecosystem. Between games and homework, I learned the lifecycle of cherry tomatoes climbing up their canes, the exact timing to harvest strawberries before birds discovered them, and the art of keeping lettuce happy. Peas spiraled up their supports while an peculiar team of chickens, a solitary duck, and a rabbit maintained order in their own corner of the garden.

Back then, Seymour's book was my atlas of dreams. Its detailed pages about self-sufficiency and rural life planted a seed that, although dormant during my years of software development and tech entrepreneurship, never truly faded.

Modern Experiments

2024 marked a turning point. Between lines of code and virtual meetings, I began exploring hydroponics. My first experiment was almost accidental: I took the stem of a store-bought lettuce (the kind that usually ends up in the compost bin) and submerged it in water. To my surprise, it not only survived but thrived.

Emboldened by this success, I ventured into something more ambitious: two avocado plants. One of them, raised in a simple water container, reached almost half a meter in height without any soil. This experiment challenged everything I thought I knew about traditional cultivation.

The Present: Laying Groundwork

When I moved to my new house, the first thing I did (even before unpacking all my books) was start germinating new crops. The drip irrigation hoses and sprinklers are already in position, waiting to become part of the first automated irrigation system.

Mallki Sapan: The Project

All of this led me to conceptualize Mallki Sapan, a project that seeks to unite my software development experience with this passion for agriculture. The name combines "mallki" (plant in Quechua) with "sapan" (unique/special), reflecting the fusion between tradition and innovation.

The project will develop in three stages:

2025 - Level 1: Foundations

Implementation of basic sensors (temperature, humidity, pH)
Continuous data streaming
Irrigation automation based on multiple variables
Maintenance and harvest alert system
Test area: 8 square meters with at least 8 different crops

2026 - Level 2: Expansion

Integration of computer vision for monitoring
Automatic pest and disease detection
Advanced soil sensors
Planting automation
Doubling of test area

2027 - Level 3: Scalability

Expansion to half/one hectare
Harvest automation
Integrated crop rotation systems

The Road Ahead

As a software developer, I know I'm diving into deep waters. Electronics, mechanics, and agriculture are new territories for me. But I firmly believe that the best projects are born at the intersection of what we know and what we want to learn.

All development will be open source because I believe in the power of shared knowledge. Perhaps it's a bit ironic that I'm using cutting-edge technology to get closer to that dream of self-sufficiency I imagined while flipping through Seymour's book, but somehow, it makes sense.

If you want to follow the project's development or contribute, you can find the repository on GitHub. All contributions are welcome, whether from traditional farming experience to IoT or machine learning knowledge.

After all plants grow better when many hands care for them 🌱

Would you like to access the source code? Contribute to the project? Or simply share your farming experience? Don't hesitate to reach out through:

GitHub: https://github.com/Faridmurzone/mallki-sapan
Twitter: https://x.com/faridcodes
Email: [ f a r i d m u r z o n e [AT] g m a i l . c o m ]