> I know rice is traditionally grown on flooded plains but that seems very risky
A recurring HN trope is people who don't know about a subject feel like they have to have an opinion on it anyway. Why do you believe it's very risky / in the hands of nature? Flooded plains (aka rice paddies) have been used for thousands of years; rice is a semiaquatic plant so it needs to be submerged, and paddies are designed to retain water to not be subject to the whims of nature.
Anyway, what alternative are you suggesting? Keep in mind it has to be scalable to feed billions and affordable.
History is also replete with droughts that killed millions of people
We are in 2025. We have plastics.
Anyway thats nit my question. My question was simple: how is is that continued, ongoing drone expense -into perpetutity- was cheaper than a one-time investment in irrigation system which can be used for water, pesticide, and even fertilizer?
Irrigation pipes have tiny holes which can be blocked by calcium deposit in hard water. You'll need filters, a lot of filters in order to operate them, and the filters needd to change for like every year or so, so it's not a one-time investment.
> I know rice is traditionally grown on flooded plains but that seems very risky
A recurring HN trope is people who don't know about a subject feel like they have to have an opinion on it anyway. Why do you believe it's very risky / in the hands of nature? Flooded plains (aka rice paddies) have been used for thousands of years; rice is a semiaquatic plant so it needs to be submerged, and paddies are designed to retain water to not be subject to the whims of nature.
Anyway, what alternative are you suggesting? Keep in mind it has to be scalable to feed billions and affordable.