ICT application for

typical small- and medium-scale farmers

in Japan Agriculture
by Takashi OKAYASU
(Agricultural informatics)
Department of Agro-environmental Sciences,
Kyushu University, JAPAN
okayasu@bpes.kyushu-u.ac.jp
https://www.facebook.com/takashi.okayasu

Conference on State-of-the-Art Technology to Drive Agriculture Productivity

in the Next Quarter of the Century, 28 June 2016, Tokyo, Japan

Todays talk
Motivation
Field environmental sensing
Plant sensing
Work recording
New farmers and consumers community
Conclusion

Food self-sufficiency rate in Japan

Production value

Calorific
intake
2013 39%

Cf. Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

What will happen in Japan agriculture?

Population
600,000

1990

Born in 1930s
(over 80 years old)

1995
500,000
2000
400,000

2005

300,000
200,000
100000
0

Age

Population distribution of primary farmers

of Agriculture,
Forestry
and Fisheries
Agricultural knowledge and techniquesCf.ofMinistry
farmers
have to be
recorded.

Population rate (%)

The wisdom and power to see into the future

is required in present Japan agriculture.

England
(2005)

Farmers age

France
(2005)

-34

Germany
(2005)

35-44

45-54

USA

(2007)

55-64

Japan
(2010)

65-

http://www.cas.go.jp/jp/tpp/pdf/2013/6/130611_nougyou.pdf

However, agriculture is a difficult industry

even if farmers have a lot of experience and sense.
Good

Past

Future
Bad

Now

Information Communication Technology (ICT)

changed our life style and our society.

www.papercliprecruitment.com

Two SNSs are key technologies to change Japan agriculture.

http://blog.ifsworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/M2m.jpg

Social
Networking
Service

Sensor
Network
System
http://markezine.jp/article/detail/17302

Success of Japan agriculture will be given as

a result of integrated data analyses and considerations.

X
Field condition

X
Plant

Farm work

= Success of
Japan agriculture!

Requirements on ICT application in Japan agriculture

Sensors and smart devices, IoT

Cloud computing technologies

Low cost

Simple installation and management

High durability in unusual environment

High availability and Redundancy

Others

Field Sensing

X
Plant

Field condition

Farm work

Plants do photosynthesis to produce carbohydrate during day,

and then the plants distribute them to grow the leaves, stems,
flowers, fruits and roots at night.

Sunlight
Oxygen (O2)
Carbon dioxide (CO2)

Oxygen (O2)

Photosynthesis

Respiration

Carbon dioxide (CO2)

Fruits
Flowers

Water

Carbo
hydrate

Nutrients

Leaves
Stem

Roots

Day

Night

Growing parts
of plant

Plant photosynthesis changes environmental conditions.

Respiration

Difference

Air temperature (C)

Photosynthesis rate (mgC02/dmh)

Photosynthesis rate (mgC02/dmh)

Photosynthesis

Bell pepper
Tomato
Cucumber

Air temperature (C)

Source 2 pp.409413

Proper saturation deficit for tomato cultivation

is related to ambient air temperature and humidity.

Air temperature (C)

Relative air humidity (%)

Stomata

Note)
Source 2

The aperture of stomata

changes by the environment.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B0%97%E5%AD%94

pp.615624

Price of computers dramatically became cheap.

Price

1990s

?
Present

Installation and management should be easy.

INTER
NET

Users

Agri-eye
Server
Global management System

WiFi
Router
FMN
Local management System

Field environmental information (air temp., humidity, CO2)

are collected by monitoring system.

LAN
Converter
Wifi
Router
Fan

Tomato

Data transmitter

Strawberry

Measured data can be used to improve production management.

Humidity

Outside green house

Inside green house

CO2

(a) Measurement data viewer

Ma
Avg.
x

Min
(b) Statistical data of air temperature

(c) Images of plant

Big data analysis is needed

to grasp valuable information for cultivation.

Number of data

Agro-data

Time

Singular Spectrum Transformation (SST)

Principal Component Analysis is able to find
the differences between the past and current signals in time series data.

past

current

Notation:
w = length of window
n = m = number of vect.
g = lag time

t
T(t)

t
t-g

t-1

A column vector s in the time

series T in a reference window
width w.

Compute a change point score using selected eigenvectors.

Change point score:

T

tr(U U)
z (t ) 1
l
where l stands for number of the eigenvalues selected and Tr( * ) is a trace.

Z(t)=0: No difference between the reference and current pattern

Z(t)=1: Big difference each other

U
U, U
z0

U
U

0 z 1

U
z 1

A change point analysis result for CO2 concentration

(Tomato Greenhouse)

CO2 concentration

Change points

w g 24, n m 5, l 1

Change point score

Several events could be recognized

by the change of environmental information.
0.08

(a)

(b) (c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

0.06
0.04

Pickup No data

Alert

0.02
0.00

Date
2010/10/13
2010/10/19
2010/10/22
2010/10/25
2010/10/26
2010/10/31
2010/11/06
2010/11/11

Farm operations
Foliar spraying fertilizer application
Window released (3 days), The automatic window
controller was stopped. (Human error)
Foliar spraying fertilizer application

Label
(a)

Disbudding, Thinning, fertilizer application

(d)

Foliar spraying fertilizer application

Foliar spraying fertilizer application
Start heating during night
No dada

(e)
(f)
(g)
(h)

(b)
(c)

Plant sensing

X
Farm work

Field condition

Plant

Plant behavior is estimated by time series images of plants.

29 Dec. 2015

03 Jan. 2016

08 Jan. 2016

13 Jan. 2016

18 Jan. 2016

21 Jan. 2016

25

200
y = 0.5438x - 23026

Plant height (cm)

20

r2=0.974

150

15
100
10
5
0

50

29/12/2015 03/01/2016 08/01/2016 13/01/2016 18/01/2016

Accumulated mean air temp.

Plant growth behavior (height) has a positive linear

relation with date.

Harvesting date and yield of plants are able to be predicted by

using time-series image processing and analysis.
Captured images
11/29/2011

Analysis

12/01/2011

Ripened fruits

Thinning
Unripe fruits

Flowers

Leaves

Area of leaves

Number of
flowers & fruits

Quantification

Number of flowers,
fruits, leaves area are
able to estimate growing
stages of plants.

Climate change

Energy

Sustainable
Agriculture &
Society

Food

Resources

High throughput phenotyping approach is needed

to collect various kinds of plant information.

https://www.facebook.com/naoki.kabaya

Phenotyping researches using robot is starting in EU.

Low cost phenotyping systems are studying now.

Plant is living!
The motion would be utilized as a sensor!

Work recording

X
Field condition

X
Plant

Farm work

Work history recording can obtain various benefits.

Records are important to estimate labors costs

and can be utilized to reduce the costs.
Records should be utilized to optimize schedule
and management of farming.

Harvesting date will be predicted by work records

and environmental information (e.g. seeding date
and air temperature).
Records will be used to train new farmers.
Others

Input and record of farm work history

is realized by smart device application.

CO2
Air temp.
Insolation
Humidity
S.temp.

Tillage
Prepare soil

Inside temp. control

Keep temp. at 15 C if temp.
management
becameTemp.
less than
10 C

Tomato

Spray chemical for leaf

Planting

Show history
Make Fertilizer

Make and use fertilizer

Use Fertilizer

Current information
view

Attractants

Work menu view

Work history view

Tiny acceleration and angular velocity sensors

directly and simply detect motion of human body.

y
x
Motion sensor
Prof. Taniguchi lab. In Kyushu University

69% of tomato harvesting works is automatically

recognized by 8 pieces of the motion sensor.

Recognition rate of
Harvesting works (%)
Walk
Box
Check
Scissors
Stem
Hand

82%
78%
65%
57%
56%
50%

Average: 69%

Tomato harvesting test

Our goal is to extend farmers sense and activities.

Field sensing

Agro
database

Plant phenotyping
Plant metabolic
sensing

Work recording

Social Networking Service (SNS) changes

farmers and consumers community!

Communication between farmers and consumers

is difficult in current agro-food supply chain.

Farming info.
Collections

Agricultural
cooperative
Markets

Feedback
Sales

Brokers

Retail shops

Agricultural produce (fruits and vegetables)

New agro-food value chain is developed

to share values between farmers and consumers.

Farming information, cost, mind, etc.

Taste, comments, fan, etc.
Collections

Sales

Agricultural
cooperative

Brokers

Markets

Retail shops

Agricultural produce (fruits and vegetables)

Agri-supporting system should be connected to real

marketing system.

Corporative
famers

Famers

Distributors
Data exchange

Data Sharing with

famers

Sensor node
Sensor node

Social
Networking
Service

Facebook

Data collection
form famers
Data collection
form sensors

Consumers

Agri SNS sever

Sensor node

Agri SNS
database

Sensor
Networking
System

Direct communication will change F and C relation.

Date: 17/10/2015
Population: 1569

New user interface based on AR changes F to C marketing.

AR

We are trying to create a new F to C marketing style.

I like this famers tomato

because it is
good sweetness and sour.

We have to shift new agro-food value chain!

Big data application to
advanced agriculture
Control

Big data
visualization

Big data application to

food security & diversity

100
50
0

10

12

14

100
50
10/30
10/31
11/1
11/2
11/3
11/4

Root
Natural resources

Big data collection

Agro-food big data

analysis
Bio-markers
Freshness

, l

Quality

Thank you for your kind attention.