Rural Development Administration conducts full review of smart farming support system… moves to identify field difficulties and devise tailored improvement measures

[Korea Agricultural Technology Newspaper = Reporter Baek Cheol-hyun] The Rural Development Administration has begun a close inspection of the current status of the ‘Smart Farming Support System Establishment Project’ and is moving to prepare sweeping improvement measures by identifying various problems experienced by farms and field practitioners. Despite the expansion of smart agriculture, the agency believes that practical barriers such as device defects, poor A/S (after-sales service), and a shortage of specialized personnel still exist in the field, and it plans to resolve them to drive qualitative growth in smart agriculture.

According to the Rural Development Administration’s ‘Inspection of the Smart Farming Support System Establishment Project’ document, various problems and difficulties were identified across the major projects currently underway.

First, in the case of the ‘test-bed training centers,’ facilities in Paju, Hongcheon, and Gunsan were found to be aging and burdened by high maintenance costs, while in Cheongju and Miryang, a lack of ICT and AI specialists was pointed out as weakening data interpretation capabilities. In response, the RDA plans to secure a budget for remodeling aging facilities and strengthen practical field capabilities by inviting outside experts and expanding hands-on training linked to management practice sites.

In the ‘distribution of crop-specific production models’ project, limitations emerged in that farmers’ ability to solve problems on their own while operating smart farms was somewhat weak, and only same-day data could be checked, making it impossible to use accumulated historical data. To improve this, the agency will secure dedicated smart agriculture extension personnel to provide regular training and begin developing additional functions for analyzing accumulated past, monthly, and quarterly data.

Field concerns were also raised in the recently spotlighted projects of ‘agricultural robot demonstration’ and ‘expansion of converged smart technologies for open fields.’ Agricultural robots were criticized not only for insufficient verification of field adaptability, but also for inadequate A/S maintenance systems due to the limitations of small-scale companies. Open-field smart technologies likewise faced problems such as manpower shortages among smart farm installation firms and poor A/S. As countermeasures, the RDA plans to establish standards for maintenance systems and after-sales service contracts, strengthen self-repair training, and institutionalize extended A/S periods by companies.

In the area of ‘building an integrated control system for climate change response’,’ a decline in farmers’ willingness to reinvest was detected due to frequent breakdowns of farm data measurement equipment (equipment left unattended) and reduced effectiveness of environmental analysis consulting. It was also pointed out that integrated maintenance is difficult because installation companies vary widely, so the agency will secure a budget to support equipment replacement and begin preparing standardized maintenance and an integrated maintenance contract system.

Above all, the biggest common obstacles across smart farming overall were identified as a lack of digital capability due to the aging of farmers, reduced project continuity caused by frequent staff turnover, and differing system operations by company due to insufficient standardization of facilities and equipment.

An RDA official said that to solve these common problems, “we will promptly prepare and apply standardization guidelines for equipment and software,” adding, “we will also expand the placement of public officials dedicated to smart agriculture and professional extension advisors, and continue to promote customized smart farm training that directly visits the field, doing everything possible to lower the digital entry barriers for farms.”