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.

Japan鈥檚 government has realized the demographical issue, of course, as it touches not only the agricultural sector. To revitalize rural areas and stem the rural exodus, the government launched a national action plan.

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.

Digitizing the Agricultural Sector

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.

鈥淔arms in this area are traditionally small and dispersed, located between forests and mountains,鈥� says Yoshihisa Horiguchi, chairman of MINNANO Future Create. 鈥淏ig supermarkets and retailers overlook them. Nowadays, the farmers cultivate rice and vegetables in small amounts to consume themselves, sell to their neighbors, or send to their children or grandchildren that live in cities.鈥�

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.

鈥淵oung people often migrate to urban areas for better education and employment opportunities,鈥� Horiguchi explains. 鈥淲here 50 years ago, a farm may have relied on 20 young workers, now only two elderly workers are left.鈥�

Digitization is one obvious approach that may help prevent those areas from depopulating completely.

鈥淏ut 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,鈥� Horiguchi says.

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.

For one of its projects, the Minano Digital Eco Farm, it partnered with 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab.

IoT Solution for Monitoring Agriculture

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’ 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.

For this vision to become a reality, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors were distributed in various locations and managed remotely from headquarters.

鈥淭he idea was to have an IoT solution running on 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP) that would help monitor all the agricultural processes,鈥� says Atsushi Minakuchi, senior solution specialist at 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab in Japan.

麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab partnered with PSI, which brought in the Digital Material Controller (DMC), an all-in-one compact edge controlling server that enables easy setup of a ubiquitous IoT environment. And, due to the cooperation with 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab, the DMC has also obtained 麻豆原创 certification.

鈥淢any IoT sensors lack cybersecurity functions,鈥� Mitsuhiro Yamazaki, senior advisor and former president of PSI, says. 鈥淗owever, by connecting sensors to a DMC with cybersecurity capabilities, it becomes possible to securely store locally collected data on the DMC, safely transmit to 麻豆原创 BTP, and accumulate, analyze, and utilize data from the DMC. This enables seamless and easy integration between the 麻豆原创 core system and the IoT system.鈥�

鈥淐ollaboration with 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab has significantly expanded the application possibilities of DMC,鈥� Masaki Fukui, former PSI Cyber Security Lab director and now with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, says. 鈥淕lobal users of 麻豆原创 now could have the opportunity to easily implement and utilize a ubiquitous supply chain platform through the combination of DMC and 麻豆原创 BTP.鈥�

Through integration with 麻豆原创 BTP, the deployment locations can then be displayed and monitored on a dashboard.

The idea is for citizens living in the city to enter a service contract with a rural farm or supplier and to connect via a technology platform to remotely monitor and support agricultural processes. In return, they receive part of the crops 鈥� freshly delivered to their homes in the city.

So far, two proofs of concept for farms have been completed between March 2019 and November 2022, as well as one proof of concept for a miso factory. Agriculture and rural industry are only two fields of application. Future projects could include schools, hospitals, stores, and elder care facilities.

Strengthening Rural Appeal for Inland Tourism

As a corporate social responsibility project, the Minano Digital Eco Farm came to life through the voluntary engagement of 麻豆原创 employees in Japan who supported the project on top of their regular work.

The project is supported by a government program unique for Japan, the so-called hometown tax payment, which makes it possible for citizens to choose and support the region they were born and raised in or a community they wish to engage with.

鈥淭he possibility of hometown tax payment is very popular among Japanese people,鈥� Hidenori Kurosawa, vice governor of Minano, explains. 鈥淭o us in rural regions, it seems that this played a significant role in creating an interest in the countryside. People want to get to know and support local towns.鈥�

Indeed, the appeal of small, thinly populated communities surrounded by beautiful forest landscape hasn鈥檛 gone unnoticed by Japanese inland tourists.

Kurosawa says: 鈥淲e wish to make Minano appealing to visitors by offering return gifts that provide an experience 鈥� that allow visitors to come to the town, interact with the locals, and experience things that are unique to this place.鈥�

The Minano Digital Eco Farm project aligns well with this strategy. Not only does it promote Minano’s charm but, by expanding initiatives, it addresses local challenges such as reclamation of abandoned farmland, increased self-sufficiency in food, reduction of CO2 emissions, and improved profitability in agriculture.

鈥淲e have great expectations that this initiative will contribute to addressing the town’s challenges and advancing the UN SDGs,鈥� Kurosawa states. 鈥淲e express our sincere gratitude to the volunteers from 麻豆原创 Japan who provided invaluable assistance in bringing the Minano Digital Eco Farm project to life.鈥�

鈥淢INNANO鈥� means 鈥渇or everyone鈥� in Japanese and is pronounced the same way as the name of the town. Fukui from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication explains the idea behind that name: 鈥淥ne action can have multiple meaningful impacts. The issue of unseen small-scale dispersed farms facing economic challenges can be witnessed around the globe. By collaborating with 麻豆原创, we hope to inspire rural communities beyond our own prefecture, maybe even beyond Japan.鈥�

But with so many new partner-developed apps moving through the industry cloud pipeline and to 麻豆原创 Store lately, I鈥檝e learned not to underestimate how compelling the opportunities are for partners to commercialize new use cases to extend 麻豆原创鈥檚 portfolio of solutions for utility customers, nor how open those customers are to moving business processes to the cloud.

The volume of utility-focused apps produced via industry cloud, and the speed at which they鈥檙e being commercialized, underscores several noteworthy trends for 麻豆原创 partners:

1. 罢丑别谤别鈥檚 vast white space within the utilities product road map for partners to turn their intellectual property and use cases into solutions that generate new revenue streams and customers.
2. That white space continues to create huge opportunities for 麻豆原创 partners to enhance and extend 麻豆原创 solutions in the utilities sector by developing their own solutions using 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP).
3. Partners are taking advantage of the plentiful resources 麻豆原创鈥檚 industry cloud offers to help support and expedite the commercialization process.

Let鈥檚 first talk about white space. Our product road map for utilities has plenty of it, along with a flexible framework to accommodate partner innovations that lead in exciting and sometimes unexpected new directions. That鈥檚 all by design. We鈥檝e realized that to give customers exactly what they need to thrive, it鈥檚 often better to let our partners use their expertise to augment the 麻豆原创 portfolio with solutions they develop themselves, with assistance from us where and when it鈥檚 needed.

That could include extensions and enhancements to 麻豆原创 Utilities Core, a solution that is . A glance at 麻豆原创鈥檚 industry cloud solutions for utilities shows development opportunities for partners in areas like enterprise asset management, digital supply chain, e-mobility, and a host of other areas. With industry cloud, we鈥檝e embraced the spirit of co-innovation, as evidenced by the close to 50 apps and solutions that are now part of the industry cloud for utilities portfolio, many of which were authored by 麻豆原创 partners. A from 麻豆原创 partner AppOrchid that enables people to query their data and get instant contextual answers is one of many examples from the partner-powered wave of innovation on the utilities side of industry cloud.

We鈥檙e actively encouraging partners to get involved in the co-innovation effort because with the new partner-friendly revenue models we鈥檝e incorporated into industry cloud, there鈥檚 a strong business case for them to do so.

Further strengthening that business case are all the resources 麻豆原创 is dedicating to support partners in the effort to identify and monetize their use cases for the utilities market. We鈥檙e making it easy for them to access resources and guidance at any point in their industry cloud journey, from onboarding through commercialization, closing deals and completing customer implementations.

To help speed the commercialization process for partners, we鈥檝e developed programs like , where we invite partners to submit use cases, then support chosen use cases with resources and guidance so they can quickly bring them to 麻豆原创 Store. We鈥檙e currently in the midst of our third utilities-focused round of SPRINT1, the previous two having yielded a variety of new apps from companies like AppOrchid, Utegration, EnergyOS, Infosys, and others.

After interviews, our panel chooses use cases based on their commercial merit. Those chosen partners then participate in a week-long bootcamp run by 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab, where partners can receive technical advice and individual support. Next comes the 鈥渟print鈥� to the finish line, with regular check-ins, progress reviews, and additional support from 麻豆原创. The final step is onboarding to 麻豆原创 Store, again with expert guidance from 麻豆原创.

Not only do we plan to offer additional rounds of SPRINT1 for utility solutions, we鈥檝e also developed an , where individuals in the field and 麻豆原创 customers can learn more about specific partner-developed solutions and industry cloud opportunities within the utilities segment 鈥� in under 30 minutes.

As evidenced by resources like these, we鈥檙e highly focused on giving partners what they need to make their engagement with industry cloud worthwhile. To learn more about utilities-specific development opportunities and how to access the aforementioned partner resources, please contact me or .

Christopher Pfendner is PES global ecosystem lead for Utilities and Energy at 麻豆原创.