Wireless 5G in Agriculture

- Overview

5G, the fifth generation of wireless cellular technology, can give farmers greater insight into their crops, improving crop yields and quality. Connected sensors providing real-time updates on machinery, infrastructure and more can ensure more efficient operations and improved maintenance. With 5G, the time required to synchronize precision farming processes is reduced from about a minute to less than a second.

5G can help make agriculture more efficient and productive through smart farming and precision agriculture:

• Livestock management: 5G can help farmers track animals' health, fertility, and food intake in real-time, and can also help reduce calving mortality.
• Precision agriculture: 5G can enable robotic devices and IoT to perform labor-intensive tasks around the clock, even in harsh conditions. For example, unmanned tractors can use GPS and computer vision to plow fields, while spraying drones and robots can perform per-plant tasks like weeding and harvesting.
• Equipment monitoring: 5G can enable real-time monitoring and control of agricultural equipment, which can reduce downtime and improve efficiency.
• Data-driven decisions: 5G's faster data transmission and processing speeds can help farmers make more informed decisions, which can lead to increased productivity.
• Resource conservation

5G can help farmers save resources and reduce environmental impact by enabling precision farming techniques, such as the precise application of fertilizers and pesticides.

5G's high bandwidth and other features, such as ultra low latency and increased network capacity, can also help connect new industries and empower new user experiences.

- 5G To Unleash the Power of Farming

5G could have a major impact on the agricultural sector, especially improving crop yields - a major undertaking because, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the world will need 70 percent more food by 2050 than it did in 2009 due to population growth. grain.

5G can provide farmers with real-time data to monitor, track and automate their farming systems, improving profitability, efficiency and safety. In high-risk industries such as agriculture, these improvements in yield and precision are critical, especially as climate change poses new threats to farmers around the world.

Many farms already use 4G-connected sensors, but 5G will give farmers the opportunity to get faster, more accurate information in the field -- potentially helping to improve outputs like crop yields and make it easier to prevent common crops and wildlife disease.

Companies such as SlantRange are already offering drone services to farmers to gain insight into their crops. With 5G connectivity, such services can operate more accurately. For example, autonomous tractors could eventually use 5G to pair with drones to guide their work, such as identifying which parts of a field need fertilization.

Likewise, machinery maker Blue River Technology is using chipmaker NVIDIA's 5G-enabled edge platform to power its AI-based "See & Spray" technology. This method equips tractors with cameras to discern weeds from crops and then sprays the appropriate solution to kill or grow the plants. (Learn how more than 50 other companies are using AI to transform farming here.)

Precision farming is expected to see major improvements through 5G technology. For resource-intensive crops, factors such as soil health need to be monitored to help improve yields. Synchronizing the precision farming process takes about a minute using a 4G network (the precursor to 5G). With 5G, that process could be reduced to less than a second, according to the John Deere Technology Innovation Center.

5G can also drive the adoption of IoT devices in agriculture, which will improve agricultural processes such as water management, fertigation, livestock safety and maturity monitoring, crop communication, and aerial crop monitoring.

Overall, IHS Markit predicts that 5G could increase output from agriculture, fisheries and forestry by $510B per year by 2035. However, the agriculture industry may have to wait longer than some industries to reap the benefits of 5G, as 5G networks will be largely deployed first in urban areas.

[More to come ...]