Japan promotes smart agriculture, using fertilization drones and automatic rice transplanters

协议ing to a report by the Japan Economic News on March 31, Tanaka Farm, a rice production corporation in Tottori Prefecture, began to implement "smart agriculture" from the time of rice production this spring. Tanaka Farm has purchased drones to spread fertilizer on farmland and rice transplanters equipped with a global positioning system (GPS). Reports that, including vegetable fields and orchards, Tanaka Farm has an area of about 120 hectares, far exceeding the national average of Japan (1.2 hectares). The farm leased the adjacent farmland to increase the planting area, but the momentum gradually declined due to shortage of manpower. The report also said that Shiga Prefecture Fuyuan Farm has purchased automatic rice transplanters since spring 2019. The farm hopes to reduce labor time, reduce costs, and produce more rice that meets the requirements of restaurants. Chairman Akira Fukuhara said: "It is only a matter of time before the price of a bag (60 kg) of rice falls below 10,000 yen. We hope to realize agriculture that can make money at a low price." The average rice production cost of farmers in 2018 was 15,352 yen per bag, which has dropped by 20% in 30 years, but the price has basically not dropped in the past five years. The official of the Grain Section of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said: "As the scale of production expands, costs continue to decline, but recently, due to the shortage of manpower, the space for reducing costs is limited." Reports that rice prices have been in a downward trend for a long time. If farmers reduce production costs, It is difficult to increase net income. The farm began to promote smart agriculture as a coup to cut costs. Vegetable factories have promoted the introduction of smart agriculture, but in the field of rice farming, the sales of related equipment have only begun in the last year or two, and there have been few examples of smart agriculture (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Promotion)

日本农业部、林业和Fisheries believes that by introducing smart agriculture, on the one hand, labor hours can be reduced by as much as 50%, and on the other hand, the harvest can be increased by 10% to 20%. The bottleneck problem is that the price of smart agriculture-related equipment is 10% to 50% higher than that of ordinary equipment. However, if more and more people think that smart agriculture can be effectively used for farm management, it is expected to be popularized among rice farmers.