Participants in the center's opening ceremony examine a miniature smart farm at the Sejong Center for a Creative Economy and Innovation on June 30.
While working in the fields, a farmer can control the temperature and humidity inside a distant vinyl greenhouse and water the crops remotely by using a smartphone. Also, thanks to a new smartphone app, farmers can raise, sell and manage their agricultural produce.
These are examples of “smart agriculture,” combining agriculture, science and technology. To continue promoting and developing such smart agricultural technologies, the government opened the Sejong Center for a Creative Economy and Innovation on June 30.
This center is now the 14th of its kind across the country. Supported by SK Group, it was built on an 820-square meter site located in the old Office of Education building in Jochiwon-eup Township, Sejong City.
The center has been running its “smart farm” pilot project at about 100 tomato farms across the area. A "smart farm" refers to an automated, remotely managed system, backed by the Internet of Things (IOT), where the farmer can control the temperature and humidity in the greenhouses or in the fields and manage the crops using equipment such as temperature-humidity sensors, CCTVs and wireless Internet access.
For the targeted smart farms, the center aims to develop a new system that allows farmers to check the production areas and prices of produce using their smartphones. The center will increase the number of farms involved in the project by the end of this year.
The Sejong City center further plans to build an online shopping mall that will sell approximately 160 sorts of farming produce from 300 farming households and which will have its own direct delivery system.
Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said during the launch ceremony that, “The Sejong Center for a Creative Economy and Innovation will make Sejong City a mecca for smart agriculture.”
“The government will realize its 'creative economy vision' in the agricultural sector and help create new added-value opportunities and will help more people in farming villages. The center will create a success story in venture startup farming,” said the prime minister.
Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn emphasizes that the government will make Sejong City into a center for smart agriculture, during the launch ceremony of the new Sejong Center for a Creative Economy and Innovation on June 30.
Participants examine an unmanned industrial-grade lawn mower robot at the Sejong Center for a Creative Economy and Innovation.
By Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photo: Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
arete@korea.kr
