TRANSFORMING
AGRICULTUREFROMSPACE
TO EMPOWER
SMALLHOLDER FARMERS

Smart farming—the application of leading-edge technologies such as robotics andIoT to agriculture—is spreading around the world, not least in Asia. An exampleof this is an innovative Japanese technology that leverages satellite imagery andAI to enable even smallholder farmers to adopt data-driven agriculture ataffordable costs.
Recent years have seenan acceleration in digitaltransformation (DX) in various
sectors, including agriculture.
While data-driven agriculture
management is progressing inthe United States and Europe—
which mainly practice large-scale
farming—innovative initiatives arealso emerging in Japan and other
Asian countries, where small-scale
farms are the mainstream. One
company driving the trend in
Asia is Sagri Co., Ltd., a Japanesestartup. Founded in 2018 with

A farmland in Vietnam included in Sagri’sproject. Surveys were conducted on suchinformation as the amount of fertilizer used.

the goal of finding solutions to
the world’s agricultural challenges,
the company’s strength lies in its
technology that uses satellite data
and AI to automatically conductsophisticated analyses and forecasts
on farmland.
By having AI learn frommassive amounts of “teachingdata” combining satellite data andactual on-the-ground information
on farmland, it will become able
to arrive at the right answers on
its own. Not only can the system
make predictions about eachparcel of farmland in terms of cropconditions and harvest yield, etc.,
but it can also analyze the soil,
assessing the amount of nitrogenand carbon, pH values, and otherconditions. As soil samples arenormally required to make suchanalyses, the use of Sagri’s system
can significantly reduce both costand labor.
In addition to its domestic
business, Sagri is working tointroduce the system among
ordinary farmers in India andThailand following pilot projects
to tackle the agricultural challenges
in those countries. In India, morethan 12,000 farmers are making
use of Sagri’s soil analysis services,with some now able to reduce theirchemical fertilizer consumption
by nearly 20%. As this reduction
helps to also reduce emissionsof nitrous oxide, a greenhousegas, it can result in qualification
for carbon credits. To turn these
credits into a new source ofrevenue for farmers, Sagri is now
undertaking procedures to obtain
the qualification to receive them.
The company also plans to launch
the same system in Vietnam,Cambodia, and elsewhere. “CarbonWith Sagri’s service, crop conditions and soil analyses
for each individual farm can be confirmed by digital
devices such as smartphones (left). “Up to now, suchtechnologies were rarely available to smallholder
farmers, so our service has had a huge impact on
optimizing seed and fertilizer amounts,” said
Chevdumoi Ravanth Mohanaram (on the right of theright photo), the COO of Sagri’s Indian affiliate.

credits will be a great incentive
for farmers, leading also to thedecarbonization of the agriculture
sector in emerging countries,” said
SAKAMOTO Kazuki, who heads
the company’s Asia business.
The foundation for such
pioneering efforts is the farmland
parcel in question. In agriculture,
the size and shape of a particularplot of land, along with its uniqueconditions such as irrigation andsunlight, are the major factors
in all decision-making, fromwhat would make for the mostsuitable crops to how much
fertilizer should be used. Whilethat underscores the importanceof delineating land parcels, inemerging countries, plots of land
are not often delineated accurately.
According to Sakamoto, “A landparcel represents, so to speak,
the farmland’s ID, serving as thefoundation of its link to important
information and analysis.”“If smallholder farmers can stabilize theirincome through data-driven agriculture, theirchildren will have the means to receive aneducation and the chance to pursue theiraspirations. It is our dream to create such afuture,” said SAKAMOTO Kazuki, who heads
the company’s Asia business.

Farm parcels in Suphan
Buri Province in central
Thailand that have been
automatically delineatedusing satellite imagery(indicated by the redlines in the right-handimage). That proves thateven the boundaries ofsmall-scale farms whose
shapes are unique andirregular can be accuratelymapped.

Sagri has developed technology
for the accurate and automatic
mapping of diverse types offarmland based on satellite data.
First, it provided AI with thevast amounts of information on
farmland available in Japan, which
includes many small-scale farms.
The accuracy of the technology
was then further enhanced byproviding the AI with information
about farmland in India, thecompany’s first overseas businessdestination. “India’s farmland istruly diverse in size and shape.
Thanks to these inputs, our AI
can now identify various kindsof farmland,” said Chevdumoi
Ravanth Mohanaram, the COOof the company’s Indian affiliate.
Also, when used in a pilot projectin Thailand that was selected
in 2020 to promote a project
under the Japan-ASEAN Asia
Digital Transformation Promotion
Program, the system was highlyacclaimed for being able toaccurately delineate Thai farmland,
which can be narrow and rolling.

In its business overseas, nothingis more important to Sagri thanworking with partners who are
well-versed in local circumstancesand culture. In Thailand, thefirm has been developing a soil
analysis model together withresearchers at the Faculty ofAgriculture, Kasetsart University,and a soil analysis project is now
being prepared for launch with
Bangkok Produce Merchandising,a subsidiary of the Charoen
Pokphand Group, Thailand’s
largest conglomerate, aiming
for social implementation. “We
would like to work together
with local people, rather than
impose our technology or values
on them. And the day will
eventually come when we pass
the baton to them, and they will
manage the system’s operations on
their own,” stated Sakamoto.
This novel approach toagriculture, developed jointly withlocal partners, should bring aboutfurther growth and an inclusive,
mutually rewarding future.