Agricultural Corporation Wooil Farm Co., based in Hwaseong, south of Seoul, is an example of how smart farming solutions can revolutionize the traditional agricultural industry.
The smart farm, South Korea’s largest, producing around 3,000 tons of tomatoes annually, said its staff members do not even have to stay at the monitoring office as they can check the status of the farm through their smartphones.
“I believe that smart farming solutions have minimized the intervention of people at farms. We would have had to hire 20 percent more staff members if it was not for smart farming,” You Hyun-sung, a director of Wooil Farm, said.
Here, nearly all processes are automatic. In the greenhouse, which plays music that is supposedly beneficial for plants, the workers’ main duties center on picking tomatoes and then putting them on carts that automatically move to the sorting conveyor.
“All environmental elements such as humidity, light and ventilation are managed by the smart farming system. We believe that the amount of produce can increase roughly 30 percent with the help of the solution,” You said.
“Previously, farms focused on adopting automation. But that did not lead to comprehensive management of farms,” You said. “With smart farming, we are now able to produce better quality produce that is more appealing to the market.”