Today, agriculture is at a crossroads, needing to balance increasing demand for food production with sustainable practices. In fact, according to forecasts, the world’s population is set to grow by 34% by 2050 and climate change and increased biofuel production represent major risks for long-term food security. This has prompted technological advancements in farming - often referred to as 'precision agriculture', namely the usage of IoT, sensors, location systems, robots and AI - which aim to address these needs. However, a successful integration of this kind faces numerous challenges.
In collaboration with TELUS, AWS and other technology partners (Red Hat and Intraway to name a few), we are helping to address the following challenges:
• difficulty in accessing and integrating complex technologies like IoT, AI, and data analytics for effective decision-making in farming.
• challenges in adopting 5G, AI, and automation due to lack of infrastructure, technology maturity, and integration with existing farming practices.
• limited availability of tailored agricultural technology solutions through telecom providers, and lack of a centralized platform for farmers to access these technologies.
We are excited to be working with AWS, TELUS and other technology partners to establish a marketplace for AgTech products led by Hadi Nejatian, Sr. Solution Architect at AWS WWCS Telco, Richard John Principal Software Engineer at Beyond Now, and David Kypuros, Global Principal Solutions Architect at Red Hat.
Utilizing 5G for high bandwidth and low latency, and Mobile Edge Computing for efficient real-time data processing in agriculture, the marketplace will provide an essential bridge between CSPs and farmers. CSPs can utilize the tailored solutions for the agricultural industry and then adopt the Beyond Now marketplace to sell them to the farming community.
With the aim of making AI-Driven Precision Farming more accessible, in this demo we have adopted AI for tasks like crop monitoring, disease detection, and automation of routine tasks like irrigation and weeding. AWS’ Gen AI suite also uses the data that comes in from the various sensors and creates predictions based on that data.
We are effectively building an interconnected partner ecosystem that is purely self-sufficient and GenAI-driven that connects farmers to manufacturers, CSPs, agronomists, and retailers to enhance innovation in agricultural solutions and drive sustainable farming practices.
The farmer visits the telco-owned marketplace (underpinned by Beyond Now’s Digital Marketplace Platform) using AWS IoT platform infrastructure and with the help of a generative AI-powered assistant (Beyond Now’s Wave AI Suite), they can explore various AgTech solutions, comparing their features and benefits. The AI assistant on the marketplace suggests comprehensive solutions for smart farming including smart irrigation systems, drone-based monitoring, and smart weeding technologies. The assistant then configures the products for the purchaser after he has added in details such as the size of Farm and address. As soon as they are happy, they can place the order.
At MWC 2024, in the AWS Next Level, we showcased our Telco-Driven Modern AgTech, demonstrating how this marketplace will benefit the following three buyer personas:
1. Exploring the Telco-Owned Marketplace:
Scenario: Maria, a tech-savvy farmer, is looking for advanced solutions to enhance her farm's productivity. She wants a centralized platform where she can find and implement new farming technologies.
Demo: Experience how Maria navigates a telco-owned marketplace and with the help of a generative AI-powered AI assistant, integrates several new technologies into her farming operations and how this marketplace becomes her go-to resource for innovative farming solutions, enhancing her farm’s overall efficiency and productivity.
2. Real-Time Farm Health Monitoring with Digital Twin:
Scenario: Maria, a farmer, struggles with monitoring her vast fields in real-time. She finds it challenging to quickly analyze her farm data, which often leads to delayed responses to issues like pests or nutrient deficiencies.
Demo: Discover how Maria leverages her newly deployed solution that includes 5G network, MEC and IoT sensors that produce a digital twin model of her farm that lead to an improvement in Maria's crop yields and overall resource management.
3. Developing an Interconnected Partner Ecosystem through a Telco-Enabled Marketplace:
Scenario: As a product manager at a CSP, Alex recognizes the vital role of technology in revolutionizing agriculture. He turns to the CSP's marketplace, a platform that aggregates various technology partners, vendors, and providers, offering various technology solutions. Alex aims to curate a comprehensive AgTech solution by intelligently bundling services and products from various vendors.
Demo: Experience how, by leveraging the marketplace, Alex not only crafts a tailored AgTech solution but also provides a collaborative environment. This platform becomes a hub for sharing innovations and best practices, enabling Alex and his peers to address complex agricultural challenges effectively. The synergy among various technology providers increases the development of new solutions, driving sustainable and efficient farming practices. Ultimately, this ecosystem not only benefits individual farmers but also contributes to the broader evolution of smart agriculture.
A marketplace is all about online selling, building volume to secure economies of scale, and providing choice and reduced prices to engage and build a community. Designed to promote industrywide collaboration, it offers CSPs the ability to leverage each players’ portfolios to design new 5G use cases around specific vertical industry needs. Ultimately, it’s a strategic initiative that can generate new B2B revenues for both CSPs and their partners.
We are excited to be able to demonstrate the benefits that a digital marketplace can bring to agriculture, but this is only one industry. This success can be replicated across other industries such as healthcare, manufacturing and automotive.
At MWC 2024 in Barcelona, we also showcased the fundamentals of how the marketplace works. The Transforming Agriculture with 5G and MEC demo, a collaboration between Beyond Now, TELUS, RedHat and Intraway, showed how the agricultural industry can improve precision farming by integrating 5G and AWS generative AI services.
Transforming agriculture with 5G and MEC
This smart agriculture integration can help companies in the AgTech sector find the best solutions, by providing off-the-shelf monetization opportunities, and creating a marketplace where they can connect with manufacturers, telcos, agronomists, and retailers.
