The latest technology that lives in the vast field of cabbage. The "Intelligent Agriculture demonstration Project" in Luchucho, Hokkaido

There are cabbage fields all over the place. The edges look a little hazy! This is Luchucho, Hokkaido. Located in the northwest of Shisheng Plain, it makes full use of the cool climatic conditions at the foot of the Great Snow Mountains, growing crops and cabbages in cold areas from spring to autumn.

Now, Luchucho is carrying out a "smart agriculture demonstration project", some of which use Softbank Corp. 's high-precision positioning service "ichimill". What kind of project is it?

畑も農機も全てがIt's too big! 日本屈指の大規模農業地帯

In short, the Shisheng plain where Luchucho is located is very large. From the high platform, there are endless fields, and the arable land area of each household is 20 times the national average. Hirano is one of the few large-scale agricultural areas in Japan.

The traffic in Luchucho is about an hour away from the air pass "Kachi Daiguang Airport" in Shisheng area. Along the way, there are rampant attention signs, tractors driving on the road, a unique scenery of a large-scale agricultural area.

Even so, the tractors in this area.

It's too big!

In order to cover a vast amount of farmland, agricultural machinery is also very large, and many are made overseas. No matter the scenery or the agricultural machinery, everything is very big. This is a dynamic place unlike Japan.

"Intelligent Agriculture demonstration Project" with the goal of eliminating labor shortage and improving efficiency

At present, Japan is calling for a shortage of agricultural labor, but Luchucho is no exception. In recent years, in order to make the machine run and ensure the necessary personnel become difficult, the harvester can not operate fully, and the expansion of farmland has stagnated.

So he signed up to participate in the "Intelligent Agriculture demonstration Project" openly solicited by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The project "demonstration of the Maxinelin system aimed at the low cost of introducing intelligent agricultural technologies (including strategies for birds and animals) in large-scale dry field management of processing cabbage" was adopted.

During the two years from April 2020 to March 2022, in order to cover the introduction of intelligent agricultural machinery with insufficient labor force, it is planned to run the schedule management of agricultural machinery to improve efficiency (Maxinelin), as well as the verification of the economy of agricultural machinery introduction.

The project is promoted by the "Luchu Town Intelligent Agriculture demonstration Union". The Luchucho Agricultural Cooperative serves as the representative agency, with many enterprises and universities participating in it. From the standpoint of assisting the project, Softbank Corp. provides high-precision positioning service "ichimill" for the consortium.

The high-precision positioning service "ichimill" is explained in detail in this article.