What is smart agriculture?Introducing advantages and demerits and examples of ICT utilization of farmers

Smart agriculture is a new agricultural style that uses advanced technologies such as robot technology, AI (artificial intelligence), and IoT (Internet of things) to achieve super -high -quality production.

"Smart Agriculture" is gradually spreading in the Japanese agricultural field.It can be said to be a digital transformation (DX) of agricultural agriculture.What exactly is possible in smart agriculture?In this article, we will explain the purpose and advantages and disadvantages of smart agriculture.

What is Smart Agriculture?

Smart Agriculture has paid for great expectations and attention as a chance to solve the problems that agriculture has so far.

It is increasingly called "Smart XX" for those that use advanced technologies, such as "Smart City" and "Smart House", use advanced technologies and save energy.Smart agriculture is one of these attempts.

Smart agriculture is also strongly promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and is greatly focusing on creating an environment for spread, such as implementing demonstration projects, creating guidelines, introducing data linkage base and support services.

Overseas, it is known as the name of "Smart Agri" and "Agri Tech", and has been introduced in many countries, mainly in the world, such as the United States and the Netherlands.

Purpose and effects of smart agriculture

The purpose of smart agriculture is to solve the various issues that agriculture has.

One of the typical issues of agriculture is a shortage of labor (labor shortage).The number of core agricultural workers was 1.76 million in 2015, but decreased to 1.36 million in 2020.The percentage of 65 years and older is 64 in 2015..69 from 9 % to 2020.Increased to 8 %.You can see that the number of people is decreasing and the population is aging.

Agricultural work, such as seeding and growth status management, agricultural land care, harvesting, and selection work, is very large, and personnel are required for any work.There are many tasks that can only be operated by agricultural machinery, such as tractors and combine, can only take time for young people to acquire skills.

Against this background, many people aim for farming.At present, many farmers are struggling to secure human resources.The average age of agricultural workers is 67.Since it is as high as 8 years old, it is necessary to encourage young people to enter in the future.

スマート農業で人手不足を補う

In parallel with the new entry of young people, if you use advanced technology like smart agriculture, you can expect to supplement the parts that do not have enough human resources with a machine such as a robot.The harsh work is also a serious issue for farmers.Agriculture is about living crops, so you have to manage your growth every day.Therefore, it is difficult to take a break and the amount of work increases.

In the aging of Japanese farmers, the harsh work is a huge problem.For such measures, smart agriculture using technology is important.By streamlining a variety of tasks and reducing the amount of work, you can create an environment where farmers can work easily.

Agriculture is hard and easy to imagine if it is a hard work, but if smart agriculture is efficient and saved in agriculture, the hurdles to farming will decrease and the number of agricultural workers will be expected to increase.

スマート農業で技術継承

In addition, smart agriculture is considered to be effective in inheriting the technology unique to agriculture.From the day of the agriculture, you can not work well.Good crops grow by managing with skilled technology cultivated from the knowledge and experience that have been stored for many years.

In the current situation, which tends to suffer from labor shortage and aging, there are problems that are difficult to inherit such agricultural technology.However, if you use the advanced technology of smart agriculture, it is thought that new farmers can manage crops like those who have experienced agriculture at an early stage.

Smart agriculture and autonomous driving

Did you know the drama "Shimomachi Rocket" based on Jun Ikeido, which was previously broadcast on TBS?In this drama, a tractor that can be used to run automatic driving with GPS has appeared.

Kubota Co., Ltd., who was in charge of the drama technical supervision, actually sells a product called MR1000A Aglobo (unmanned specification).

Looking at the homepage of Kubota Co., Ltd., besides tractors, combine with autonomous driving assistance is sold.This combine can be harvested by automatic driving while the operator boarded.

By utilizing automatic driving agricultural machinery, the burden on farmers can be reduced.It also leads to reduced working hours due to savings and increasing production.

Smart agriculture and IoT

There are multiple types of advanced technology used in smart agriculture.One of them is "IoT (Internet of Things)".By using IoT, you can understand the needs of consumers.

IoT is explained in detail here, "What is the meaning of IoT? The mechanism of technology that changes society in an easy -to -understand manner" is explained in detail.

If you know what kind of crops are required for what kind of consumers are required, it is possible to intensively produce crops that meet your needs.

You will also be able to find more efficient routes for distribution that delivers the production to the consumer.In addition, data is analyzed for soil and local climate, and suitable work is possible based on it.Many agricultural equipment introduced with IoT has been developed.

>>スマート農業の実現に　使いやすく、安心で、リーズナブルなIoTプラットフォームサービス

Utilization of smart agricultural drones

"Drone" is one of these examples of using IoT.In recent years, drones have been adopted in various industrial fields, but can be used effectively in agriculture.

There is a drone called "Remote Sensing Drone P4M" sold by Yanmara Grava Japan Co., Ltd.This drone has a camera, and it is possible to check the status of the field (Hoyo), a place to cultivate crops.In addition, the growth status in the field can be visualized, so it can be used to improve cultivation efficiency and inheritance of know -how.

For example, there are cases where rice cultivation is used to carefully measure records such as the country's environment and rice growth status using drones and perform appropriate work.Because it is possible to manage detailed development, natural cultivation is possible without using pesticides and chemical fertilizers as much as possible.

In the United States, which is known for performing large -scale agriculture, smart agricultural initiatives using drones are progressing.By using drones on vast farmland, the eyes are open to every corner, so you can do pesticides spraying and land analysis without manpower.

Smart agriculture and artificial intelligence (AI)

Another thing is "Artificial Intelligence (AI)" that is expected to be used in smart agriculture.AI is beginning to be introduced in various fields, but has great potential in the agricultural field.

It is to accumulate know -how that even new farmers can succeed in agriculture.It is considered that some experience needs some experience in giving a consolidated harvest in agriculture.Agriculture requires frequent observations for the development of crops, along with the land environment, weather, and climate.

What kind of response is appropriate depending on the crop situation?Such decisions are hard to do if you just started agriculture.As a result, it is a conventional perception that the production of new farmers will be sluggish until the knowledge and experience that can be properly responded is accumulated.

However, incorporating AI can analyze the delicate changes and development of crops and lead the optimal response on data.With this mechanism, even new agriculture can be expected to get a consolidated yield from the first year.

AI case

There is an AI irrigation fertilizer system called "Zero Aguri" developed and sold by Route Trek Networks.This is a device that automates irrigation and fertilization by IoT and AI technology, which realizes high quality and labor saving of agriculture.

Various sensor information is consolidated into a zero -elegic cloud, and the amount of irrigation fertilizer (liquid fertilizer supply) is issued on the cloud, and the soil environment can be automatically supplied from the zero -grin itself.

You can check various data not only from PCs but also from smartphones and tablets, so you can check the data from anywhere.It is easy to use for new farmers, making it easier to enter.

There are also harvest robots equipped with AI.Introducing tomato harvest robots developed by Panasonic Co., Ltd.This robot uses AI to recognize the fruit suitable for harvesting and identify the position.AI robot that automatically harvests.Because it is a robot, it can be harvested at night when people are sleeping, improving productivity.

4 advantages of smart agriculture

The first advantage of smart agriculture is that you can work with small staff.If you use robots and other machines in many situations in agricultural work, you can work as much as possible.This is a great advantage for farmers who tend to suffer from labor shortages.

The second advantage is that you can expect to increase your production.In smart agriculture, the amount of work can be improved from the past with a little effort.Like the Panasonic AI robot introduced earlier, the production will be improved because you can leave the work when people are resting.In addition, using data will increase your work accuracy and increase your production.

As a result, it is thought that more crops can be harvested.This will increase your income for farmers, but the country can expect to increase food self -sufficiency.

The third advantage is that the load on the environment is reduced.Utilizing data can be used to spray pesticides with drones, which can significantly reduce the amount of pesticides used.According to the company's published value, there are cases where pesticides used decreased to 1/10.

In addition, the use of AI can suppress excess use of liquid fertilizer and CO2.Utilizing AI can predict high -precision demand, which will also reduce food loss.

The fourth advantage is that it will be easier to enter agriculture.There are many situations where agriculture requires skilled knowledge and skills.Without experience, the work would not work well, and there were problems that could not lead to production.

However, using data and the like in the advanced technology of smart agriculture will make it possible to achieve stable results even if you just start agriculture.If you have no experience, you will not have the image of difficulty in production and difficult, and it is expected that more people will want to start a new agriculture.

"NEC Agricultural Technology Learning Support System" provided by NEC Solution Innova Co., Ltd.In this system, new farmers can learn the points of the work performed by skilled farmers, and learn new farmers on PCs and tablets.A mechanism to inherit new farmers by "formal knowledge" by ICT technology with the skill of a skilled farmer's craftsman with ICT technology.

Disadvantages of smart agriculture (issues)

The major disadvantage of smart agriculture is that it costs money for introduction.For smart agriculture, the use of various devices such as robots and systems is essential, and if you start, you will need initial investment.

Robots for farmers tend to be cheaper than those used in factories, but it is not so reasonable enough to be bought comfortably.

Because smart agriculture is still in the field that has just begun and has a light day, there are some parts where you do not know how much results you will achieve, so it is difficult to determine the cost effectiveness.

It is also a disadvantage that there is a possibility that it cannot cope with data management with AI etc. other than data.AI analyzes a variety of data and corresponds to various cases.However, agriculture is greatly influenced by natural movements such as weather and temperature.Occasionally, unexpected events that are not in the data occur, and it may not be possible to respond.And in order to make full use of smart agriculture technology, you have to acquire the skills that can be used.This is one of the disadvantages.

It is not easy for farmers who are aging to convey advanced technologies.It is also necessary to develop human resources who can teach smart agriculture skills.

Japanese agriculture is a new step by smart agriculture

Smart agriculture is expected to be a breakthrough that solves the various problems of agriculture.There are many cases of success, and further development is being promoted, which has a great possibility.

However, it must be remembered that there are some developments, and that there are many advantages and disadvantages.If you use your smart agriculture deeply and use it effectively, Japanese agriculture may proceed to a new step.

summary

reference:

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Smart Agriculture

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Smart Agricultureの展開について

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Statistics regarding agricultural labor

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