Could 5G networks enable faster, cheaper food production?

In the ongoing quest to develop cheaper and more efficient means of farming, there have been about three major revolutions to date.

The first major revolution was the shift from hunting and gathering to farming. The second coincided with the Industrial Revolution, which increased farmers’ ability to bring goods to market. Hybridization and genetic engineering marked the third revolution, as the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers increased.

The fourth revolution, known as smart farming, is still in its early stages. Leveraging connected devices throughout the food supply chain, smart farming promises to improve speed, safety, and reliability using technologies such as drones and artificial intelligence. Powering this innovation are faster 5G networks, offering tremendous opportunities for improved tracking, sustainability, and more efficient deployment of resources at scale.

Improving food tracking and logistics

Farmers have long been looking for more efficient ways to get their produce to market. Many companies already use technologies like GPS and enterprise resource planning (ERP) to track, transmit, and analyze product data in real time. 5G-connected IoT devices represent the next step in this evolution, providing lower latency and faster speeds for transmitting conditions, temperature, safety, humidity levels, and other factors. This is a huge safety improvement for the food supply chain. Widespread use of 5G-connected devices opens the door to better tracking of recalled products, for example, providing detailed insights into storage facilities, delivery vehicles, and processing plants. In addition, potentially contaminated produce could be limited to an acre or row to support the U.S. FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and similar regulations in the European Union.

Greater efficiency and sustainability

Higher bandwidth is needed to enable more complex technologies such as drones and self-driving cars. Private 5G networks provide this level of automation, with the speed and service assurance needed to complete tasks such as planting, watering or harvesting. The data collected during these processes can also feed predictive analytics models to test improvements to yields and sustainability.

Of course, it’s not just the tracking and delivery portion of the food supply chain that will benefit from 5G network capabilities. Farms can use natural resources more efficiently and sustainably. Using IoT devices to monitor soil conditions, temperature, water quality and usage, the health and location of animals, the temperature of a refrigerator or oven, or the presence of contaminants across the enterprise in real time will not only free up human effort to solve real problems and innovate, but will bring opportunities to reduce water, feed, energy, and fuel consumption. Ultimately, the edge monitoring and computing power of 5G networks are key to these sustainability improvements.

Achieving autonomous cleaning and transportation

Spurred by a depleted workforce and increased cleaning and disinfecting requirements caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturers and warehouses alike are turning to autonomous cleaning robots that can meet expanded cleaning regulations. Mopping robots use artificial intelligence (AI)-driven navigation and 5G to provide consistent and uninterrupted cleaning of warehouse and factory floors. In addition, autonomous vehicles are revolutionizing food production on the farm. Monarch and John Deere have both announced fully autonomous tractors for 2022. These tractors and others like them rely on the low-latency connectivity provided by 5G to enable real-time responses and remote monitoring. Together, these smart machines can save hundreds of hours of labor each year.

Looking ahead

The importance of 5G-enabled IoT devices for safety, tracking, efficiency, and planning in the modern food supply chain is undeniable. They are being integrated into mainstream food production and may soon be as essential as they are everywhere. Whether a communications service provider (CSP) provides connectivity or an enterprise chooses dedicated 5G, smart agriculture requires a secure network and allows visibility all the way to the edge to maintain efficient operations and provide quality of service. Whatever happens in the long term, the advances in smart farming and food supply chain monitoring enabled by 5G technology are already revolutionizing food production and delivery.