Leveraging ICT to enhance quality and strengthen national competitiveness Taiwan’s precision agriculture sector adopts cloud computing 以ICT技術提升品質 厚植國家競爭力 台灣精緻農業 邁向雲端

As part of its efforts to promote the use of information and communications technology (ICT) to support the development of the precision agriculture sector in Taiwan, the Innovative DigiTech-Enabled Applications & Services Institute (IDEAS), Institute for Information Industry has made available a number of new technologies and collaborated closely with the private sector; these efforts are already starting to produce results. Weng Yu-Sheng, Director of IDEAS’ Kaohsiung Innovation & Research Center, notes that ICT is coming into more and more widespread use in precision agriculture, and that this year should see the introduction of cloud computing technology into the precision agriculture sector.
為了積極推動以資通訊科技 ( Information and Communication Technology, ICT) 輔助台灣精緻農業發展,資策會創新應用服務研究所提出多項技術,與企業合作,已有初步成效。資策會創研所高雄軟體創新研發中心主任翁欲盛表示,應用於精緻農業上的ICT技術日漸普及,同時在今年可望邁入雲端運算 (Cloud Computing) 技術的全新領域。

In orchid cultivation, the plant cultivation success rate has usually been around 40 – 50%. Using ICT, this can be increased to 80 – 90%. Making full use of ICT can help both to maintain quality standards and to ensure stable production volume, and should lead to the development of a high-profit “blue ocean” market for Taiwan’s precision agriculture industry.
如蘭花栽培,原有育成成功率在4到5成,利用ICT 科技輔助,可提升至8到9成。若能充分利用ICT技術,在作物的質與量上保持穩定供給,可望為台灣精緻農業開創出一條高利潤的藍海市場。

Weng Yu-Sheng explains that the overall trend is towards a new type of agricultural service platform that emphasizes the use of relatively simple, lightweight equipment at the front end, and the use of cloud computing technology at the back end. “Using simple, lightweight equipment at the front end” means installing sensors and communications gateways on farms, while back-end management and analysis systems will be implemented through the use of cloud computing-based resource sharing. Whereas in the past farmers might have needed to invest NT$1 million or more in expensive monitoring and control software, hardware and services, the amount that they need to spend will now be reduced to around NT$300,000. Once this type of cloud computing technology has reached maturity, Taiwan’s agricultural and aquaculture industries will be able to expand into overseas locations; experts will be able to monitor and manage the production environment in these overseas production locations remotely, without needing to go overseas themselves.
翁欲盛表示,採用前端輕量化及後台雲端化的新式農業服務平台是未來趨勢。前端輕量化指的是在現場實地安裝布置感測器(sensor)和通訊閘道(gateway),而後台的管理及分析系統以雲端化的資源共享方式提供;這可讓原本高達百萬元以上的監控軟硬體設備及服務投資降到約30萬元左右。此類雲端技術一旦成熟,農漁業可將農產養殖區域擴展至海外據點,專家就能在台灣隨時確認監控管理生產環境,不必遠赴海外。