Ericsson to help out stumbling blocks impeding access to mobile connectivity and widespread adoption of precision agriculture, with implementing 5G wireless connectivity.

5G is going to speed-up the data collecting process and monitoring along with sensor networks, livestock monitoring and agricultural drones. As a leading vendor and an authority in the wireless telecommunications industry, Ericsson is in a position to help out on having access to the high-speed networks through 5G in smart agriculture sector. By realizing smart agriculture completely depends heavily on high network speeds, ultra-low latency, and broadband that the 5G wireless connectivity can provide at a lower cost to the rural farmers. Why 5G, because the networking that enables smarter data communications between the farm management systems and the IoT devices like autonomous vehicles, sensors, drones and robots. These devices help in gathering and transmitting the farm’s data to the cloud-based facilities. The company is actively working on providing readily accessible 5G wireless network connections especially to the rural and to the agricultural communities.

The high-speed 5G connectivity enables the IoT devices to perform a wide array of labor-intensive farming and ranching activities. Without this wireless high-speed network, smart agriculture can’t be employed efficiently and even the productivity is also hampered because automated solutions that depend on the internet and GPS can’t be accessed. Therefore, the access to 5G networks which enables upload and download speeds fast enough to transmit larger data to and from farm equipment and IoT devices to the cloud in sort time.

The company Ericsson has also contributed on customized 4G/5G Radio Access Network (RAN) to the North Carolina-based PAWR program AERPAW, which focuses its research on the convergence of 5G technology. It has been also working in autonomous vehicles equipped with 5G technologies that can collect real-time images and videos from farms. This can help the farmers to identify and eliminate weeds and plant diseases.

According to the research report “Global Smart Agriculture Market Outlook, 2027” published by Bonafide Research, the smart agriculture market is anticipated to grow with 12.10% annual growth rate. North America region is projected to have maximum market share in terms of value by the forecast period. The involvement of technology with the agriculture sector has developed the term ‘smart agriculture’, which defines a shift towards technology-based from the traditional farming practices. The new farming system also promises many competitive advantages, like maximizing resources, optimizing crop and livestock yields, cutting costs, and preserving the environment. As per experts and researchers it is believed that smart agriculture holds the key to satisfy North America’s growing demand for food and other resources. It is also helping to reduce the global food insecurity through smarter, automated farm management.

It has been researched that about 62.5% farmers use technology for farming across the globe. The growing use of IoT (Internet of Things) and AI is gradually increasing the demand for smart agriculture market within the farmers. Today farmers are getting familiar with the technologies and the new gadgets and improving their farming processes. However, the improvements are also influencing other farmers to adopt the new techniques of farming. On the other hand, the smart agriculture system can save up to 85% in water consumed as the agriculture consumes almost half of water resources around the world. They also report up to 40% increase in crop yield, while reducing the cost of fertilization and chemical treatment, and up to 60% less losses resulting from human error.