The promise of smart rural communities
智慧农村社区的承诺
Unlocking new economic value
释放新的经济价值
Can the promise of smart cities be extended to rural areas as well? Improving connectivity in these areas is a necessary first step to unlocking new economic value.
智慧城市的前景是否也能延伸到农村地区？改善这些地区的连通性是释放新经济价值的必要的第一步。
Not your grandfather’s farming
不是你祖父的农场
TAKE a trip to West Lafayette, Indiana, and you’ll get a glimpse into the future of farming in America. Situated at the intersection of the Great Prairie and a vast stretch of hardwood forest, the Agronomy Center for Research and Education (ACRE) at Purdue University comprises 1,400 acres of farmland undergirded by long-range Wi-Fi and an extensive network of sensors that enable the daily collection of 1.4 petabytes of data. ACRE represents the epicenter of the “Agriculture 4.0” movement, an effort to harness technology—from drones and satellite imagery to global positioning systems (GPS) and a wide array of Internet of Things sensors—to significantly increase the productivity of farming. By collecting, analyzing, modeling, and visualizing huge quantities of data, researchers at ACRE can better understand the impact of various inputs—water, fertilizer, and soil types, among others—and tailor farm operations with more precision. The goal? To reduce costs, improve yields, increase efficiency, and enhance the nutritional value of crops, in order to feed an estimated 9 billion people by 2050.
去印第安纳州的西拉斐特旅行，你会看到美国农业的未来。普渡大学农学研究与教育中心位于大草原和大片阔叶林的交汇处，占地1400英亩，由远程Wi-Fi和广泛的传感器网络组成，可每天收集1.4千兆字节的数据。ACRE代表着“农业4.0”运动的中心，该运动致力于利用从无人机和卫星图像到全球定位系统（GPS）和各种物联网传感器的技术，显著提高农业生产力。通过收集、分析、建模和可视化大量数据，ACRE的研究人员可以更好地了解各种输入水、肥料和土壤类型等的影响，并更精确地定制农场作业。目标？为了降低成本，提高产量，提高效率，提高作物的营养价值，到2050年，估计能养活90亿人。
In the agricultural industry today, explains Patrick Smoker, department head and senior director of IT for the colleges of Agriculture, Information Technology, and Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University, “there’s the farm management side, which uses technology to help farmers make informed [management] decisions in terms of producing high yields with low input.” Then, on the research side, “you’re collecting, analyzing, visualizing, modeling, and all the [computation] that has to be behind that. We're talking about big data, connected to everything, just like our consumer market ... that's the whole of what we're trying to do, and the technology plays many roles in that.”
普渡大学（Purdue University）农业、信息技术和兽医学院（colleges of Agriculture，Information Technology，and Veterinary Medicine）的系主任兼IT高级主任帕特里克•斯莫克（Patrick Smoker）解释说，在当今的农业产业中，“有农场管理方面，它利用技术帮助农民在低投入的情况下做出明智的（管理）决定，生产出高产量。“然后，在研究方面，”你收集、分析、可视化、建模，以及所有的（计算）结果。我们谈论的是大数据，连接到所有东西，就像我们的消费市场一样。。。这就是我们要做的全部，而技术在其中扮演了许多角色。”
The upshot of these advances is that farming is becoming more efficient, profitable, and environmentally friendly. The potential economic value is considerable. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), realizing the full potential of connected precision agriculture technologies could add an estimated US$47–US$65 billion annually in gross benefit to the US economy.
这些进步的结果是，农业正在变得更加高效、有利可图和环境友好。潜在的经济价值是可观的。据美国农业部（USDA）估计，实现精准农业技术的全部潜力，每年可为美国经济带来约470-650亿美元的总效益。