Landmark University has emphasized the role of 5G IoT in advancing smart agricultural economic growth in Nigeria during the 5th Public Lecture of the University titled, “The Echoes of Fifth Generation Internet of Things (IoT) in Advancing Smart Agricultural Economic Growth” on Friday 15th July 2022. 

Delivering the 5th public lecture, Professor Francis Ibikunle of the Department of Electrical and Electronics Information (EIE) revealed that the internet of things (IoT) and smart systems would enhance practicable precision agriculture effortlessly, harping on the need to move from traditional to precision farming. He stated that this innovation would account for the specific terrain features and soil properties, continuous monitoring of the soil state, accurate distribution of fertilizers and avoidance of harmful environmental effects by systematic soil treatment. 

According to the lecturer, precision agriculture steps which are accessing variation, managing variation and evaluation have numerous benefits including reduction of chemicals released into the environment, improvement of crop yield and profit, provision of better information for making management decisions, provision of more details and useful farm records, reduction of cost of fertilizer, pesticide, and reduction of pollution. Professor Ibikunle noted that the internet of things (IoT) could be applied to field agriculture, aquaculture, poultry and livestock breeding, greenhouse, plant factory, solar insecticides lamp and agriculture crowd sensing among others through the usage of a 5G network. He noted further that the 5G responds faster with high capacity, adding that it would provide 22.2 million jobs globally amongst other benefits according to predictions by the year 2035. He later identified the obstacles to precision agriculture through the 5G network with the hope to transform agriculture from obsolete, traditional and production-driven to profitable, competitive, market-driven and globalized agriculture through precision. 

In her remarks earlier, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Charity Aremu noted the aptness of the 5th public lecture to the prevalent challenges of the nation and continent, one of which is meeting the food and raw material needs. Professor Aremu stated that the world today is in the palm of our hands owing to the possibility of interconnectivity. “It is all about web-enabled smart devices, such as processors, sensors and communication hardware for data collection, processing and sending”, she added.  The Vice-Chancellor linked the importance of the public lecture to aligning with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), noting that the lecture is pivotal in promoting academic excellence in the University and showcasing it as a forward-looking university among the league of quality citadels of knowledge.

The Registrar, Miss Adefunke Fola Oyinloye, while delivering the welcome address, stated that information technology has become the strongest and fastest driver of change in the world today, saying that, “it has affected the way we work, live, interact and so on” which according to her made the lecture very fundamental to the University in line with its daunting quest of attaining global relevance through the agrarian revolution mandate. 

Delivering his goodwill message, the Proprietor of Thomas Adewumi University (TAU) Dr J. B. O. Adewumi noted that the lecture was not only insightful but apt considering some of the challenges the nation is facing presently. He therefore advised youths to pursue hard work, resilience and excellence to achieve greater heights. Dr Adewumi added that technology will feed the world, hence the future belongs to technology as he expressed hope that the participants will maximize the information the lecture made available to create wealth.  

The 5th Public Lecturer, Professor Francis Ibikunle is a professor of Electronics and Communication Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering at Landmark University.   

At the end of the lecture, members of the University Management, Senate and the Guests were  led by the Vice-Chancellor Professor Charity Aremu to a cocktail where further goodwill messages and interactions took place.