Working together towards new forms of abundance YANMAR Smart Agriculture

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    Developing “Agriculture” into a
    “Food-Value-Chain”.

    Arable land is limited.
    Food demand is increasing with the growing population.
    At the same time, farming populations are in decline.
    Yanmar is dedicated to achieving sustainable agriculture
    by bringing technologies that utilize ICT, such as SMARTASSIST,
    together with the latest in mechanical and labor-saving technology.

    Reasons for the progress
    of Smart Agriculture

    The agricultural situation is constantly changing,
    and we are facing a multitude of challenges on a global scale.

    The world’s population is anticipated to grow significantly
    Crop failures due to extreme weather
    Aging population, decreasing number of farmers (in Japan)
    Due to land amalgamation, the number of large-scale farms is increasing (in Japan)

    According to the UN, the world’s population is anticipated to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, and there are concerns that this will result in food shortages. Furthermore, in recent years, crop failures due to extreme weather have been reported around the world, and climate change has had an impact on the growth of staple crops, making it difficult for farmers to gauge the optimal times for planting and harvesting.

    In Japan, there is an aging population and lack of young people taking up farming. As such, there has been an increase in abandoned farmland, which in turn has led to a downward trend in agricultural production. On a global scale meanwhile, agriculture is facing a multitude of challenges, such as managing the increasing average area of land cultivated by each farmer.

    To overcome this crisis situation, in recent years there has been increasing interest in the introduction of “smart agriculture”, using advanced technologies such as robot technology and ICT.

    • ※Sources： Prepared by Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) based on the UN’s “World Population Prospects： The 2015 Revision”; “Estimated World Food Demand Totals for 2050” (MAFF); “Global crop forecasting to improve climate risk management in food agencies and agrobusiness under warming”, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO); “Situation Surrounding Agricultural Administration” (MAFF); MAFF census; “Survey of Movements in Agricultural Structure” (MAFF statistics)

    YANMAR’s vision for the Smart Agriculture

    Advantages of Adopting
    Smart Agriculture

    One solution to the challenges faced by agriculture both in Japan and globally is “Smart Agriculture”.

    Agricultural Technology x Advanced = Technology Smart Agriculture Next-level labor savings and large-scale production, Bringing out the most in your produce, Enabling anyone to perform agricultural work, Providing security and reliability for suppliers and consumers, Liberation from intensive and dangerous works
    • It can help resolve labor shortages caused by hard labor and decreased numbers of farmers resulting from a flight of youth to the cities.
    • It can facilitate agricultural work by making it more efficient and able to be performed with lower levels of labor and manpower, in turn enabling food production costs to be reduced.
    • It can be used to assist new agricultural workers in the acquisition and continued use of cultivation technology.
    • Its data collection functions can be utilized for cultivation plans or employee training.
    • It enables work to be performed even at night, allowing farmers to increase the scale of their operations more easily while helping ensure work gets performed at optimal times.

    YANMAR Smart Agriculture

    Using robots and ICT
    to provide more comprehensive agricultural support

    By providing state-of-the-art agricultural machinery and services centered around SMARTASSIST technology, YANMAR is helping farmers realize better labor savings, enhanced efficiency, higher accuracy, and enhanced profitability, all while working to resolve many of the challenges faced by the agricultural industry, including labor shortages, cost reductions, acquisition of production techniques by new farmers, and increased scale of operations.

    State-of-the-art agricultural machinery x Data utilization

    State-of-the-art agricultural machinery (initiatives in Japan)

    Shaping the future of agriculture with YANMAR technology

    YANMAR began development of a robot tractor in 2011, and in 2016 received the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award at the 7th Robot Awards. Blazing a trail ahead of our competitors, YANMAR is pursuing the robotization of agricultural machinery. In terms of rice transplanting, we are realizing labor savings by combining our auto rice transplanters with YANMAR’s high-density seedling (Mitsunae) technology. With SMARTASSIST and remote sensing, smart combine harvesters equipped with yield monitoring functionality are helping farmers to improve work accuracy and plan more efficiently for the following growing season.

    Our aim is for everybody, regardless of experience, to be able to do agricultural work accurately and efficiently. Moving forward, YANMAR will continue to expand initiatives centered on smart agriculture.

    Robot / Auto Tractor

    Can be operated easily and accurately by anyone, regardless of skill level.
    Auto Rice Transplanter

    With automatic straight-line travel and automatic turning functions, it is easy to plant accurately in straight lines.
    Smart Combine Harvester

    Linking with SMARTASSIST allows centralized management of collected data.
    Drone (remote sensing)

    Enables farmers to monitor the health of their crops, providing information which is useful for making adjustments to spraying/fertilizer ratios.

    Drone (pest control)

    Even in narrow fields or mountainous areas, pest control is now possible from the air.

    Unmanned Helicopter (pest control)

    Airborne agriculture has evolved further, with this helicopter allowing large-volume spraying.

    Data utilization

    Farm support system utilizing data

    By centralized large-scale data management/links to agricultural machinery via SMARTASSIST, as well as visualization of crop growth with remote sensing, precise production management and operational efficiencies can be realized.
    Using such technology to enable the transfer of know-how to the next generation of farmers, while achieving labor savings and higher efficiency and precision, YANMAR will continue to support farmers in making their business more profitable.

    SMARTASSIST

    SMARTASSIST is a cloud-based agricultural IoT service designed to support efficient farm operations using operating and positional information output from agriculture equipment.
    REMOTE SENSING

    Remote sensing technology enables fast, precise measurements to be taken over wide areas, allowing farmers to use numerical data to visualize fluctuations in growth throughout their fields.

    YANMAR’s vision for the future of agriculture

    In future, data analysis will become increasingly important for agricultural management. Centered around visualizing agriculture by accumulating and analyzing information via SMARTASSIST, YANMAR Smart Agriculture works to support farmers by linking together a wide range of data sources.

    For example, in addition to their conventional functions, agricultural machinery will also act as in-field sensors, with work data and sensing data managed centrally by SMARTASSIST. Once the data is received, SMARTASSIST creates an optimized production plan, and sets tasks and a working area for the machinery based on the plan.

    Comprehensive collection and analysis of various data ensures stable quality and yields, and contributes to labor-savings.

    This ideal future is just around the corner.
    With a view to the next generation, YANMAR will continue to take on the challenge of achieving sustainable agricultural management.

    Rice cultivation solutions utilizing remote sensing

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