Huawei turns to pig farming as smartphone sales fall

As it struggles with tough restrictions on its smartphones, Huawei is turning to technology for pig farmers.

After the Trump administration labeled it a threat to US national security, the Chinese telecoms giant was prevented from accessing critical components.

Huawei is looking at other sources of revenue for its technology in response to struggling smartphone sales.

Huawei is also collaborating with the coal mining industry in combination with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology for pig farmers.

Former US President Donald Trump alleged that Huawei could share user data with the Chinese government, claims he has consistently denied.

As a consequence, as it lacks US government approval to import components for 5G devices, the world’s largest telecoms equipment manufacturer has been limited to producing 4G models.

Reports have indicated that this year it would reduce its smartphone manufacturing by up to 60 percent, although it said it can not confirm this number.

“The issue here is not like there’s any problems with our quality or experiences of the Huawei products. It’s not a level playing field for Huawei as Huawei is caught in between the geopolitical tensions,” a company spokesperson told the newsmen.

And so, Huawei seems to be searching for other sources of revenue – expanding into cloud computing services, smart vehicles and wearable devices. It has plans for a smart car, too.

But it has its eye on a few more conventional sectors as well.

China has the largest pig farming industry in the world and is home to half of the live hogs in the world.

With AI being introduced to detect diseases and monitor pigs, technology is helping to modernize pig farms.

Individual pigs can be recognized by facial recognition technology, while other technology records their weight, diet and exercise.

Other Chinese tech giants, including JD.com and Alibaba, are already working with pig farmers in China to bring new technologies.

“The pig farming is yet another example of how we try to revitalize some traditional industries with ICT (Information and Communications Technology) technologies to create more value for the industries in the 5G era,” the Huawei spokesman added.