| KT Future Convergence Office Senior Vice President Song Jae-ho introduces the company's smart farm systems service during a media forum at a restaurant in central Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of KT |
By Yoon Sung-won
KT has launched its smart farm service which provides enhanced greenhouse control systems at reduced installation costs, the nation's second-largest telecom company said Thursday.
KT, which has pushed to diversify its service portfolio under its GiGA wired and wireless networks brand, said it will develop and offer more system services for farms based on big data analysis technologies.
“We have focused on inconveniences at farms with services that actually benefit them,” said Song Jae-ho, senior vice president of KT Future Convergence Office, during a media forum in central Seoul, Thursday. “We will take a leading role in supporting farms to boost profitability by providing big data services that offer optimal information on cultivation.”
The company said the KT GiGA Smart Farm system service collects environmental data such as temperature, humidity, solar irradiance, concentration rate of carbon dioxide and quality of soil at cultivation facilities using sensors embedded in Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The system will analyze the collected data and run control systems accordingly, establishing the optimal environment for crops, KT said.
According to a survey by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in January, 53.8 percent of respondents picked the burden of early investment and maintenance expenses as the biggest obstacles to introducing smart farm systems.
“We have applied our smart farm technologies developed at the KT Institute of Convergence Technology to lighten the burden of early investment,” the telecom company said. “In this way, we have reduced the expenses of introducing smart farm systems by up to 40 percent.”
KT said its integrated smart farm control center monitors connected cultivation facilities around the clock. It has also strengthened security functions and adopted machine-learning technology to enable customized control of each greenhouse.
Under cooperation with the agriculture ministry, KT will open 10 smart farm field training and support centers nationwide to aid farm owners learning how to use complicated information and communication technology services.
Farm owners can learn how to use smart farm devices in training fields that have been established to imitate actual farms. State-run agricultural technology centers in Seoul, Yongin, Damyang, Buyeo and Seongju have collaborated with KT on this project and the centers are scheduled to open in July, the company said. It has already opened after-sales services centers in Yongin, Gimje, Nonsan, Seongju and Chuncheon.