Agri-Shot Co., Ltd. has been selected for the development and demonstration project of a pest occurrence prediction system for fruit cultivation in the “2024 Pioneering Industrial Technology Support Project” sponsored by Wakayama Prefecture. Through this project, we aim to commercialize a system that can predict the occurrence of pests and diseases using cutting-edge AI and IoT technology and effectively control pests with the minimum amount of pesticide spraying, in order to achieve efficient control of pests and diseases, which are an issue in fruit cultivation.
In modern society, companies are required to balance solving social issues with business growth while responding to the growing global environmental awareness. The EU has set a goal of reducing pesticide use by 50% by 2030 in its “Farm to Fork Strategy,” and the shift to environmentally friendly agriculture is an urgent task in the global market. In Japan, too, it is essential to build a sustainable agricultural production system that meets international certification standards in order to achieve the goal of 10 trillion yen in agricultural exports. While pest control using pesticides is still essential for sustainable agricultural production, efforts to reduce pesticide use by effective control at the optimal spraying timing are being emphasized. In daily farming activities, spraying pesticides at the optimal timing increases the pest control effect of the pesticide, which results in reduced pesticide use, reduced pesticide costs, and improved yield and quality.
Based on the results of surveys by various research institutes across the country, a web application will be implemented that will enable prediction of the occurrence of pests and diseases from environmental data (such as temperature, humidity, and precipitation), and Agri-Shot environmental monitoring devices will be installed at approximately 100 locations, mainly in production areas within the prefecture, to provide advance detection of the occurrence of major pests such as scale insects, thrips, and black spot disease and enable fruit farmers to spray pesticides effectively at the optimal time.
SOURCE: PRTIMES
