Executive Summary
Technology development in rural areas has huge potential - possibly even higher than in urban areas due to the clarity of the use cases. Funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport 5G Testbeds & Trials Programme, the 5G Rural Integrated Testbed project (5GRIT) and this paper set out and describe these use cases to illustrate the technology used, to assess the benefits, and to recommend future steps.
Uses cases which at first sight seem mundane have high value when we include the value of the opportunity created through the time saved. Especially in remote, extensive farming, direct farm income often has to be supplemented by non-farm income. The technologies applied here create such an opportunity by saving the farmer time, which can then be used to generate supplementary income.
Two uses cases were assessed in detail:
● monitoring of sheep in extensive hill-land areas;
● monitoring of arable crops in intensive farming areas.
Economic benefits were assessed and although these are challenging to evaluate, we estimate an economic value of almost £400 for a sheep farm and up to £92 per hectare additional margin for arable crops.
The technology is still very young and recommended next steps would include further refinement of the specific algorithms to monitor eiter crops or animals.
Ref: D3.13 Interim Final Report