AGRIST to Launch 'Next-Generation Smart Agriculture' Pilot Project in Miyazaki and Kagoshima, Focusing on Fuel Cost Reduction and Harvesting Robots

AGRIST Inc. (Headquarters: Shintomi, Miyazaki Prefecture), a startup solving agricultural challenges through technology, will launch a next-generation protected horticulture pilot project at its farms in Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures. The project aims to simultaneously achieve significant reductions in fuel costs and improvements in productivity to address issues such as recent surges in energy prices and labor shortages.

This project aims to build a public-private-academic consortium. It is a wide-area collaborative project looking beyond mere technical verification toward establishing 'profitable large-scale agricultural models' and 'sustainable urban development' in the future.

■ Background of the Pilot Project: The 'Energy Crisis' in Agriculture and the '2035 Cliff'

Currently, due to intensifying international tensions, the cost of fuel such as Type A heavy oil, which is indispensable for heating in protected horticulture, has skyrocketed, severely pressuring farmers' management. A survey by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (2023) shows that approximately 88% of heating equipment in greenhouses still relies on fossil fuels, making countermeasures urgent.

Furthermore, in Miyazaki Prefecture alone, 62.3% of agricultural workers are 65 or older, with an aging population progressing. The '2035 Cliff' is approaching, where approximately 14,500 hectares of high-quality farmland face the risk of liquidation or abandonment over the next 10 years.

To address these challenges, AGRIST aims to establish a 'sustainable agricultural model' by integrating its proprietary harvesting robot technology with energy control technology that does not rely on fossil fuels, serving as a hub to protect regional production bases.

■ Specific Contents and Verification Items of this PoC

(1) Harvesting Robots and AI Environmental Control in Greenhouse Horticulture
AI is used to combine environmental data and growth images within the greenhouse collected by harvesting robots to automatically optimize the environment (temperature, humidity, CO₂, watering). By doing so, the company attempts to establish shipping time control that shifts the harvest peak to match periods of high market prices, such as the severe winter season or transition periods.

(2) Localized Heating (Method of warming areas near crops)
Instead of the conventional method of warming the entire greenhouse, technology is introduced to reduce heating energy by locally warming the root zone or growth points of the plants. The temperature and growth transition are tracked hourly, aiming for fuel cost reduction and increased yield.

■ Future Development
The data obtained from this demonstration will be expanded not only as a sustainable agricultural model to production areas such as Shintomi Town, Miyazaki Prefecture, but also scaled up gradually through the consortium.

AGRIST Inc. is a startup born to solve agricultural challenges through technology and realize sustainable agriculture that will last for the next 100 years. It develops smart agriculture using AI-powered automated harvesting robots nationwide.