MUSCAT, MARCH 27
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources (MoAFWR) hosted a Korea-Oman Smart Farm Initiative last week in association with KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency), a Korean government agency promoting mutual economic and business relations between Korea and the Sultanate of Oman
‘Smart Farm’ technology can increase the productivity of Omani farms and help boost food self-sufficiency in the Middle East region. Smart Farms adopt a controlled farming system with labour efficiency by converging with ICT, AI and automation. They control the cultivation environment, such as light, temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration and culture liquid to produce high-quality crops stably throughout the year.
“The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources is working on the pilot project for smart farm within Oman and we are happy to learn all the new technologies from Korea that can very well be replicated to the Oman agriculture environment'', Saif al Khamisi, Director at the MAFWR told the 'Observer'.
The seminar had four presentations including the ‘Smart Farm concept’, the ‘project progress in Kuwait’, ‘Korea and overseas Smart Farm projects and cases’ and finally a set of recommendations for Oman like greenhouse types and advanced smart farm automation for perusal.
“We would like to strongly initiate Korea-Oman smart farm cooperation and hope to contribute to Oman’s agriculture sector to be more technologically advanced and substitute food imports to provide healthy locally-grown vegetables to the residents'', Sejin Kim, Director General from KOTRA said.
The seminar also highlighted the latest smart agricultural technologies and models of developing smart farms, as well as the types of greenhouses used in smart farms and saw the participation of several experts from the Ministry, Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and various international companies in the agriculture sector.
Smart Farm technology can be applied to greenhouses, vertical indoor farms, fish farms, mushroom farms, livestock farms and orchards and can also manage the growing environment of crops and animals even with the aid of a smartphone and tablet PC remotely and automatically.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
