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- Some Washington farms are piloting 5G-enabled agritech as food insecurity is projected to rise.
- Federal funding for the Food Resiliency Project has dried up, but states and partners have growth plans.
- This article is part of “How 5G Is Changing Everything,” a series on 5G technology that is transforming various industries.
Thirty miles north of Seattle, the urban landscape stretches into low-lying farmland.
Swans Trail Farms is a family-run business focused on agritourism and events in apple orchards, corn mazes, pumpkin and strawberry fields. But Swans Trail is not your typical farm. From 2021 onwards, the farm will be equipped with his 5G through the Food Resiliency Project.
“When they came up to me and said, ‘Hey, do you want to do this?’ My first initial reaction was, ‘What the hell are you talking about?'” said Swans Trail owner Nate Krause.
The Food Resiliency Project is a collaborative effort between the 5G Open Innovation Lab in Snohomish County, Washington, and other partners such as Innov8.ag, Washington State University, and T-Mobile. The project was originally funded by his CARES Act early in the pandemic and is part of an effort to integrate 5G into agriculture.
“It all comes down to food security,” said Snohomish County agriculture coordinator Linda Nuenzig. There are still grocery store shelves and we’re seeing food prices go up.”
Feeding America estimates that 1 in 7 people in the United States are experiencing food insecurity during the pandemic. In addition to inflation, problems in his chain of supply and global instability, he said 222 million people worldwide face severe food insecurity, according to an analysis of recent data from the World Food Programme. It is estimated that These are short term issues. By 2050, the world’s population is projected to exceed her 9.7 billion. On the other hand, agricultural land is deteriorating. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that by 2050 he will need 70% more food than he did in 2009.
The agricultural industry has been slow to adopt technological advances, largely due to limited connectivity in rural areas. (More than 22% of his rural Americans lack broadband service, according to the Federal Communications Commission.)
By setting up a 5G network in agricultural areas and combining it with other technologies, farmers can receive accurate data to save resources such as water and fertilizer, automate tasks to save time, You can better monitor your crops.
Swans Trail Farms is piloting new 5G-enabled agritech.
Swans Trail Farms
Snohomish County and the 5G Open Innovation Lab have launched sites to pilot 5G-enabled farming technology at two farms, Swans Trail and Andrew’s Hay. The lab partnered with Innov8.ag to install a private network on each farm capable of handling large amounts of data. They installed soil sensors to determine nutrients in soil and weather stations that track the microclimate. They have automated the technology and linked it to farmers’ phones to perform tasks such as turning on irrigation systems, installing shades to protect crops, and spraying chemicals. Saved me time.
“The traditional way of doing farming is one thing,” Krause said. “Opening minds to new methods and applying technology to agriculture is the future of agriculture.”
Swans Trail’s Krause has saved time and money through technological advances because the data center is located in the farm’s 100-year-old milking barn.
The new system is 600 times faster than the low-bandwidth hotspot the farm previously operated. Soil sensors have helped us understand where to over-fertilize or under-fertilize, reducing our chemical spend by 25-30%. After installing water sensors on each block of trees in his orchard, he realized that over-irrigation had been wasting water for years, and he reduced the water by 75%. Innov8.ag did his digital mapping of the number of flowers and apples on the farm, so Krause can accurately predict yields.
According to the FCC, 5G and other mobile broadband services will be used to enable the use of technologies such as smart crop monitoring, drone farming, autonomous agricultural machinery and smart building management, thereby contributing to the global agriculture industry. could bring in dollars.
CARES Act funding for this initiative dried up last year, but the 5G Open Innovation Lab continues to fund the project. And plans are underway to grow.
Snohomish County has applied for a grant to install more soil sensors and weather stations on other farms in the county. The 5G Open Innovation Lab and Innov8.ag are working to expand into eastern Washington, a more agricultural area of the state.
Jim Brisimitzis, Head of 5G Open Innovation Lab, said: “We want to take these lessons and think about how we can help his next 100 producers, or his next 1,000 producers.”
Krause predicts that agricultural technology will advance rapidly within the next few years.
“You’re more accurate. You’re saving resources. You’re saving money,” Krause said. It’s a very big deal.”
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