Victorian farming communities in LoRaWAN IoT trial

Agriculture Victoria and NNNCo are working to roll out LoRaWAN to trial sites in the state’s Maffra, Tatura, Serpentine and Birchip regions, to enable farming communities to take advantage of enhanced connectivity.

The hope is that the digital network will enable farmers to better manage crops and boost productivity thanks to access to improved real-time data from potentially thousands of sensors.

The trial is part of the state government’s On-farm IoT trial, which aims to break down barriers that farmers have said prevent them from investing in new technology, such as a lack of dependable connectivity.

“NNNCo’s network and data platform rollout is a commitment to every farmer in these regions to provide the coverage they need to better manage and run their operations,” said NNNCo CEO Rob Zagarella.

“Farmers now have a broad choice of devices and applications from the growing global IoT ecosystem, including irrigation management and control, and real-time monitoring of soil health, rainfall, cattle movement, farm assets, worker safety and water tank levels so that they can proactively respond to the needs of the farm.”

The improved connectivity also has the potential to benefit the wider rural community.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/scharfsinn86