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Comment by ruc0la | Hacker News Reader

I am doing pretty much the same. I am currently an engineering student, working part-time as a programmer. Although the job market for programmers is excellent in Europe, I bought an apple orchard (via loan) pretty close to the capital of the country where I live. Due to the proximity of the capital city, I can sell my product at a decent price and earn more than an average senior dev here. I also enjoy being outside and collaborate IT with agriculture. I am planning on purchasing drones to calculate NDVI and other useful stuff. People working 160 hours a month at a desk requires nature, peace. They love my U-pick programme as the venue is beautiful and close to the capital (less than 15km).

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> I am planning on purchasing drones to calculate NDVI and other useful stuff

As someone who works at a company that uses Drones to do NDVI, look into EVI. And getting a proper calibration plate, or a light sensor you understand, will allow you to make the results much more accurate.

thanks, I looked at NDWI too http://openweathermap.org/news/post/ndvi-ndwi-differences-an... "NDWI in comparison with NDVI is more accurate indicator of plant humidity. NDWI is calculated with the help of water absorption band which is more closely connected with moisture than chlorophyll whose light-absorbing properties are used in calculation of NDVI. "

I'm not familiar with EVI

Granted I'm just a software developer, we have a whole processing team of GIS people that can go into more detail. And we are focused on vineyards.

Here's a blog post we made to explain the difference, the jist is NDVI can change throughout the day while EVI is more stable: https://skysquirrel.ca/2017/07/evi-vs-ndvi-whats-difference/

Thank you guys I will check out the linked sites; I haven't purchased the drone yet. I do not want to spend, too much (1-2k in €) so maybe I will use a service instead. I am pretty familiar with GIS, and I use it on a regular basis for the orchard (I am experimenting with almond as we have a warmer microclimate here in the valley).

here's a paper looking at which indexes work with corn, wheat and irrigation water, it's very likely each crop will have an index that is more accurate;

"The following spectral indices were examined: Difference Vegetation Index (DVI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Difference Water Index (DWI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Difference Drought Index (DDI) and Normalized Difference Drought Index (NDDI). "

https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/jengeo.2015.8.issue-...

> I am planning on purchasing drones to calculate NDVI and other useful stuff.

Have you toyed already with Sentinel-2 NDVI? There's a free API: https://scihub.copernicus.eu/twiki/do/view/SciHubWebPortal/A...

It would be interesting for instance to have a cron job warn you if the values get too low, etc.

Thank you, I will check it out.

Are there good spots in Europe? I was in Belgium and wasn't satisfied (too corporate jobs or underpaid jobs) so I moved to the US and now can afford on one salary an apartment near Venice Beach in LA, CA with my wife and two kids whule having a family life. Living on one salary, even just with my wife at the time, was impossible in Belgium.

> Living on one salary, even just with my wife at the time, was impossible in Belgium.

Although tech in Belgium isn't as well paid/rockstar-ish as the rest of Western Europe, that's a bit much.

Where were you living, what were you earning?

This is great and I'm planning to do the same. Currently working as a software programmer but figured I can move to a tropical country and have a higher quality of rural life. However I don't know how to get started on using computer assisted agriculture to grow sweet potatoes. Do you have any recommendations of courses or resources that can help get started?

I have an agricultural engineering BSc, too. So it was not a big transition for me. My family helps me a lot since I am studying and also having a job. I work a lot; my life is always in a hurry. Maybe paying for a consultant is the best way if you do not know how to start.

160 hours a month?

I remember having a part time job.

All kidding aside, I can tell you aren’t American based on that statement alone.

How strong is the overworking culture in America? It's pretty strong here, but not too bad.

They once let me go home to sleep, but then I got called back for a hot fix.

We aimed to have two deploy brackets, Monday morning and Wednesday morning. If it is broken we roll back, fix it properly, redeploy at midday. If it can't be fixed in a day then it's properly broken and probably shouldn't have made it to release.

I worked at that agency for four years and did perhaps two weekends of overtime. Bliss. It can be done, and in an agency environment with client expectations.

It depends. If you've got a "throwaway skill-set" and they can hire any random CS grad to replace you after a month of training you had better answer your phone when they call at 2am. If you're time consuming and expensive to replace then feel free to put your phone on vibrate before you go to sleep.

Never stated that I am American^^ Up to your profession but 8 hour is the standard here.

Unless you're a founder you shouldn't be working more than your employer pays you for, eg 40 hours.

Do you have a blog or something with more details? I have a dream of doing something similar, although growing vegetables, and would like to know more. My email address is in my profile if you don’t want to make it public.

https://m.youtube.com/#/channel/UC-BlDCX__nCLs_ZF9meYQbw

Hello, Here at Open Agriculture Supply (https://www.openagriculturesupply.com/) we are a company working at the intersection of technology and agriculture, using the Open Agriculture Platform from MiT to deliver the next generation of Food Production, Agricultural, and Agtech products to reality. Given your unique background in both software development and agriculture we would love to work with you to help develop and refine our own products as well as support you with any potential needs, ideas, and development activities you may have in mind. Please contact us at info@openagriculturesupply.com if you would like to talk further. Happy Farming!

That's so cool and really inspiring to me! Do you have a blog or anything?

Yes, but mostly about tech stuff. I have just started the orchard thing, so it has been my first year. I will consider posting agriculturally related articles shortly. If it becomes actual, I will leave the URL here.

How long do you estimate it will take you to pay back the loan?

I could pay back in 5-6 years at the current pace. But the loan is long-term (10 years) designed for farmers.

You should blog about it, haven't seen something like that before.

I will consider posting agriculturally related articles shortly. If it becomes actual, I will leave the URL here.

Which country? I'd love to pop by the orchard!

Hungary, send me a PM next autumn, and I will be glad to have you here.

Is this in Germany where the CAP supports small scale hobby farming in order to buy the faming vote ?

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