التكنولوجيا وأخبارها بوابة الإمارات لتكنولوجيا المعلومات والإتصالات
NEC Corporation today announced the conclusion of a strategic partnership agreement with
Kagome Co., Ltd. to launch agricultural management support services utilizing AI for leading tomato processing companies.
The new service uses NEC’s AI-enabled agricultural ICT platform, CropScope, to visualize
tomato growth and soil conditions based on sensor data and satellite images, and to
provide farming management recommendation services. This AI enables the service to
provide data on the best timing and amounts of irrigation and fertilizer for healthy crops.
As a result, farms are able to achieve stable yields and lower costs, while practicing
environmentally sustainable agriculture without depending on the skill of individual
growers.
Tomato processing companies can obtain a comprehensive understanding of the most
effective growing conditions for tomato production on their own farms, as well as their
contract growers. Also, they can optimally manage crop harvest orders across all fields
based on objective data, which helps to reduce yield loss and improve productivity.
NEC and Kagome began agricultural collaboration in 2015, and by 2019 they had conducted
demonstrations in regions that include Portugal, Australia and the USA. An AI farming
experiment in Portugal in 2019 showed that the amount of fertilizer used for the trial was
approximately 20% less than the average amount used in general, yielding 127 tons of
tomatoes per hectare, approximately 1.3 times that of the average Portuguese grower, and
almost the same as that of skilled growers.
Kagome will establish a Smart Agri Division in April 2020, first targeting customers in
Europe, then aiming to expand the business to worldwide markets.
“Kagome has been developing agricultural management support technologies using big
data in collaboration with NEC since 2015, with the aim of realizing environmentally
friendly and highly profitable agricultural management in the cultivation of tomatoes for
processing on a global basis,” said Kengo Nakata, General Manager, Smart Agri Division,
Kagome. “By combining Kagome’s farming know-how with NEC’s AI technology, we will
realize sustainable agriculture,” he added.
“NEC is pleased to have signed a strategic partnership agreement with Kagome,” said
MasamitsuKitase, General Manager, Corporate Business Development Division, NEC. ”NEC
aims to realize a sustainable agriculture that can respond flexibly to global social issues on
climate change and food safety,” he added
