5G smart farming is a technology that is likely to transform food production in the near future. As the 5g technology applications mature, they will improve the farming and monitoring practices, hence enable more production and harvests using fewer resources and inputs.
Several established technology companies and startups are working on 5G smart farming solutions. While some are going it alone, others such as Huawei, Agroscope and the Swiss telecom Sunrise are teaming up to develop a 5G based smart agriculture infrastructure.
Huawei is working with sunrise to see how they can use 5G technology to power the Swiss Future Farm located in Tanikon, Switzerland. The technology companies are in particular trying to establish the specific technologies useful for the agriculture practices in the Swiss while seeking ways to reduce the digital gap between the urban and rural areas and especially places without fast connections such as fiber.
So far, there is little public information about the progress and other details about the project. However, the companies will provide more information at a later date.
Although 5G technology is still maturing, several companies are trying out or developing several applications that can benefit from the great speed, low latency, and high capacity. In particular, they are looking for various ways beyond the current smartphone-based applications that rely on 3G and 4G technologies.
For example, Huawei, in partnership with smart farming vendor XAM, is exploring how to accelerate intelligent or smart agriculture using 5G technology.
It is good to note that smart agriculture is just one of the numerous 5G applications technology companies are exploring. Other 5G applications companies are working on including smart cities, self-driving vehicles, improved emergency services, field robots, etc.
Top 5G Technology applications
5G wireless technology will enable better and faster communication with robots hence enhancing the processing of data the devices collect. In particular, the technology will make it possible for the robots to offload the data to the cloud or edge much faster hence reduces the cost of deploying field robots.
In the next few years, we are likely to see more applications come to the mainstream as the 5G technology matures. Today, the technology is limited to only a few cities and hence cannot be tested worldwide.