The Rural Development Administration (RDA) announced a strategy to develop a Korean-style smart farm based on ICT integration.
Sensor companies are discussing cooperation and effective data utilization methods.

There's a joke that goes, "If there are 45 million farmers, there are 45 million farming methods." This demonstrates how unique each farmer's method is. It's for this same reason that urban farmers who dream of farming often face challenges when settling down in rural areas.

Park Heun-dong, director of Farmcloud's research lab, stated, "We will standardize farming methods so that even returning farmers can easily settle down." This was a conference on the IoT Open Platform-based Development Verification Support Infrastructure Construction Project, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 19th.

The Rural Development Administration's current ICT-integrated Korean smart farm development strategy consists of three generations: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The 1st generation connects sensors and smartphones to allow farmers to "view" greenhouses from outside. The sensors and controllers are displayed in video. Rather than focusing on increasing productivity, the strategy focuses on facilitating farmers' convenience. The 2nd generation builds on the 1st generation's farming technology by adding big data analysis to provide intelligent prescriptions. It measures the indoor and outdoor atmospheric conditions of greenhouses and applies intelligent control algorithms to control the complex environment. Cloud services support decision-making, contributing to productivity. The 3rd generation standardizes components through integrated energy management and the introduction of robots. This is the stage where the goal is to enter the global market with the platform in the future.
According to Director Park, the first-generation system penetration rate is approximately 700 farms, and while the second-generation system penetration rate is still low, it is increasing by 200 farms annually. This is because, while installation costs are approximately 7 million won and 20 million won, respectively, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) is currently subsidizing 50% of the cost, thereby increasing the penetration rate.

Director Park stated that, rather than expecting productivity gains from analytics, the current agricultural landscape "still has a strong demand for first-generation technology." For farmers, sunset is the time they close their greenhouses, making them sensitive to temperature fluctuations. For small farms, even a first-generation device capable of monitoring temperatures on a mobile device could significantly reduce the need for farming.

The second generation is being built and operated by a large-scale farm, which previously used a solution from a foreign company (PRIVA). PRIVA's primary function is to automatically open and close doors by monitoring indoor and outdoor temperatures through a circuit board installed in a greenhouse. This circuit board, which must be replaced every three years, costs approximately 30 million won. By comparison, solutions provided by domestic telecommunications companies can be implemented as cloud services at a lower cost.

Director Park pointed to the lack of interoperability and non-standardization among providers as ongoing problems. Replacing sensors or uploading records to the cloud is complicated and requires retraining each time.

“In the United States, they are working towards standardization under the specific slogan of ‘prescription agriculture.’ “We are also working with three major domestic sensor companies that handle soil, carbon dioxide, etc. to provide compatible SDKs and connect them to the cloud.”

The Rural Development Administration plans to register company-specific standards in the cloud by next year and provide business support services and services that connect hardware and software. Director Park added that while previously they were focused on reducing costs, they are now focusing on minimizing devices.

"Our current goal is to provide intuitive access to the necessary information in the cloud. Furthermore, if startups and companies can develop a methodology that effectively utilizes the data collected by crop and season, we believe it will have market value."