{"id":5455,"date":"2024-03-11T04:10:52","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T04:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/sea\/?p=5455"},"modified":"2024-03-11T04:10:53","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T04:10:53","slug":"digital-eco-farming-how-sap-japan-helps-revitalise-rural-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/sea\/2024\/03\/digital-eco-farming-how-sap-japan-helps-revitalise-rural-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Eco-Farming: How 麻豆原创 Japan Helps Revitalise Rural Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"
Like other industrial nations, Japan has been facing massive demographic challenges in its agriculture sector. An aging population and a lack of younger individuals entering the sector to replace them have led to farms being abandoned and fields lying fallow.<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s government has realised the demographical issue, of course, as it touches not only the agricultural sector. To revitalise rural areas and stem the rural exodus, the government launched a national action plan.<\/p>\n
In alignment with this action plan, 麻豆原创 Japan has joined the effort of encouraging rural communities to thrive by launching a co-innovation project with PSI, an 麻豆原创 partner, and the local government of the town of Minano.<\/p>\n
The small town of Minano is located in the hills of Saitama Prefecture, about two hours from Tokyo. While the south of this prefecture is largely a suburb of the Tokyo area, the west, approaching Mt. Fuji, is still very rural and thinly populated. A former center of silk industry, the region on average is sunny and warm but can get lots of snow in winter.<\/p>\n
\u201cFarms in this area are traditionally small and dispersed, located between forests and mountains,\u201d says Yoshihisa Horiguchi, chairman of MINNANO Future Create. \u201cBig supermarkets and retailers overlook them. Nowadays, the farmers cultivate rice and vegetables in small amounts to consume themselves, sell to their neighbours, or send to their children or grandchildren that live in cities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since 1950, Minano has lost roughly one-third of its population, largely due to the decline of the agricultural sector. Today, it counts about 10,000 inhabitants.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung people often migrate to urban areas for better education and employment opportunities,\u201d Horiguchi explains. \u201cWhere 50 years ago, a farm may have relied on 20 young workers, now only two elderly workers are left.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Digitisation is one obvious approach that may help prevent those areas from depopulating completely.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut while large-scale farms benefit from the economic feasibility of applying robotics and the like, it is financially and logistically challenging to apply such technologies to small-scale dispersed farms,\u201d Horiguchi says.<\/p>\n
Horiguchi, the owner of an automotive parts manufacturing company, co-founded the local initiative MINNANO Future Create in 2019 to solve the challenges resulting from population loss. Its members range from elderly individuals to young residents, forming a diverse group of individuals, including pharmacists, architectural designers, and other professions, all living in the town.<\/p>\n
For one of its projects, the Minano Digital Eco Farm, it partnered with 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab.<\/p>\n
IoT Solution for Monitoring Agriculture<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The Minano Digital Eco Farm project aims to build a communication platform that connects farmers and urban residents as well as small-scale dispersed farms to major supply chains, forming a portfolio that coexists with existing large-scale farms. In alignment with the United Nations\u2019 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the project will help overcome supply chain disruptions due to food shortages and crop failures due to abnormal weather, conflicts, disasters, and more.<\/p>\n
For this vision to become a reality, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors were distributed in various locations and managed remotely from headquarters.<\/p>\n