LG Uplus to Build 'Future-Type Plant Factory'

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] LG Uplus, LG CNS, and Farmate have joined forces to promote a smart farm and "future-type plant factory" business that can provide consumers with safe food using ICT technology.

On the 21st, LG Uplus announced that it will collaborate with LG CNS, which possesses blockchain solutions, and Farmate, the No.1 domestic plant factory company, to jointly demonstrate the "future-type plant factory" capable of autonomous control and food safety traceability at Sangdo Station subway, the first of its kind in Korea. Based on this, they will actively promote a smart farm business that enables tracking of the entire process from production, shipment, distribution to delivery.

Once the "future-type plant factory" promoted by the three companies is established, the crop cultivation environment factors such as temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, and nutrient solution, which were previously managed visually and manually by on-site workers, will be remotely manageable via smartphones using wireless communication-connected monitoring sensors, intelligent CCTV, big data, and AI technology. Heating and cooling devices, nutrient supply systems, and others will also be autonomously controlled under optimal conditions. Furthermore, based on blockchain, production history such as crop type, sowing, growth, and cultivation, as well as distribution information including shipment and delivery, will be automatically stored at each stage, providing a food safety traceability service that is tamper-proof, thus offering consumers safe food they can trust. In the future, sensor data collected from the plant factory will be used to develop optimal cultivation recipes for each crop.

To this end, LG Uplus will provide an integrated smart farm control platform based on environmental and growth monitoring sensors, communication infrastructure, cloud, big data, and AI. LG CNS will build a food safety traceability system using its blockchain solution "Monachain," offering tracking functions for all stages from production to shipment, distribution, and delivery. Farmate will be responsible for the plant factory demonstration testbed at Sangdo Station and crop cultivation and operation.

Joo Young-joon, head of LG Uplus Future Technology Development Lab, said, "Starting with the future-type plant factory demonstration project, we will prepare for the new future of agriculture and lead the digital transformation of agriculture," adding, "We will actively cooperate with partners to discover various business models for smart farms." Lee Jun-won, head of solution business development at LG CNS, stated, "Based on blockchain technology, we will work together with LG Uplus and Farmate to ensure the technology delivers real customer value." Kang Dae-hyun, vice president of Farmate, said, "The future-type plant factory can overcome agricultural difficulties caused by aging, labor shortages, supply instability, and productivity decline by utilizing idle urban spaces. We expect this project to greatly contribute to providing sustainability for urban agriculture and creating jobs."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.