Rice farmers in Japan could benefit from ICT innovations. (Image Source: GP Witteveen/Flickr)

Mitsubishi Corporation and Vegetalia, an information and communication technology (ICT) start-up have joined forces to provide solutions for the Japanese agricultural sector

According to demographic trends, the Japanese farming population is ageing and decreasing but advanced ICT solutions could be leveraged to play an important part in modernising the sector and ensuring that knowledge and skills are passed on to the next generation of farmers. To help meet these goals, MItsubishi has invested in Vegetalia, an ICT company which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) to tackle challenges in agriculture.

Vegetalia utilises the latest plant science and ICT to provide solutions for farmers such as the Field Server, an IoT tool that allows farmers to monitor their farm lands using sensors, Paddy Watcj, a water-management system for rice fields, and Agri-Note, a cloud-based system that supports farm management and reporting through the use of maps and aerial photos. The company has also created Plant Clinic, a service that integrates the expertise of plant science specialists, the first private-sector  initiative of its kind in Japan.

Going forward, Vegetalia plans to work with producers and agribusiness enterprises to put the data accumulated through these solutions to use, leveraging big data on an ICT platform across a broad customer base. This will include information on topics such as soil, farm activity and plant growth.