BRASILIA (BRAZIL) – As part of an effort to boost productivity and take fast action against disease, the Brazilian farm state of Goias has unveiled a pilot project, which relies on fifth-generation technology and equipment given by Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co.
The rollout of the agricultural application comes when the government is mulling whether to impose a ban on the use of Huawei equipment in next year’s auction of 5G frequencies spectrum.
The 5G communications will enable producers to improve their produce through information collected by sensors in the fields, on harvesters and drones. It can be crossed with meteorological and humidity data, said Huawei Brasil marketing director Tiago Fontes.
By merging fast broadband communications with real-time cloud data processing, farmers will receive information in one hour doing away with the long wait of three days. This helps them take quick remedial measures if there are threats to crops, he said.
“We launched this application for soy to show how 5G used with drones can raise productivity and reduce herbicide costs,” Fontes said.
The project was rolled out in the soy-farming town of Rio Verde. It uses a 5G network built by Claro, a unit of Mexico’s América Móvil.
According to a report in the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper on Thursday, telecommunications regulator Anatel has proposed rules that do not exclude Huawei.