Like other developed countries, Japan faces major demographic challenges in its agricultural sector. An aging population and a lack of young talent coming into the field to replace them are causing farms to be abandoned and fields to remain fallow.
Of course, the Japanese government recognizes that demographic issues do not only concern the agricultural sector. In order to revitalize rural areas and stem the rural outflow, the government has launched a national action plan.
In line with this action plan, SAP Japan launched a joint innovation project with SAP partner PSI and the local government of Minano Town to join efforts to promote prosperity in rural areas.
Digitalization of the agricultural sector
Minano is a small town in the hills of Saitama Prefecture, about two hours from Tokyo. The southern part of the prefecture is primarily on the outskirts of the Tokyo area, while the western part, closer to Mt. Fuji, remains very rural and sparsely populated. Once a center of the silk industry, the region is generally sunny and warm, but it does experience heavy snowfall in winter.
“Farms in this region have traditionally been small and dispersed, located between forests and mountains,” says Yoshihisa Horiguchi, chairman of Minna no Future Create. “Major supermarkets and retailers ignore them. Currently, farmers produce rice and vegetables in small quantities for their own consumption, to sell to neighbors, or to send to their children and grandchildren living in the city. We are cultivating
Since 1950, Minano has lost about one-third of its population, largely due to the decline of its agricultural sector. Currently, there are approximately 10,000 residents.
“Young people often migrate to urban areas in search of better education and employment opportunities,” Horiguchi explains. “Fifty years ago, a farm might have relied on 20 young workers, but now there are only two older workers left.”
Digitalization is one obvious approach that could help prevent population decline in these regions altogether.
“However, while large-scale farms benefit from the economic feasibility of applications such as robotics, it is financially and logistically difficult to apply such technologies to small, dispersed farms. ” says Horiguchi.
Horiguchi, the owner of an auto parts manufacturing company, co-founded the regional initiative MINNANO Future Create in 2019 to solve the challenges caused by population decline. Members range from the elderly to young people, and include a wide variety of people living in the town, including pharmacists and architectural designers.
For one of our projects, Minano Digital Eco Farm, we partnered with Japan’s SAP Co-Innovation Lab.
IoT solutions to monitor agriculture
The Minano Digital Eco-Farm Project aims to build a communication platform that connects farmers and urban residents, connect dispersed small-scale farms to major supply chains, and form a portfolio that coexists with existing large-scale farms. This project is in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and will help overcome supply chain disruptions caused by food shortages and crop failures caused by extreme weather, conflicts, and disasters.
To realize this vision, IoT sensors were distributed across different locations and managed remotely from the company’s headquarters.
The Minano Digital Eco Farm Project aims to build a communication platform that connects farmers and urban residents.
SAP
“The idea was to run an IoT solution on SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) that would help monitor all agricultural processes,” says Atsushi Mizuguchi, Senior Solutions Specialist at SAP Co-Innovation Lab (COIL) in Japan. says Mr.
COIL has partnered with PSI to introduce the Digital Material Controller (DMC), an all-in-one compact edge control server that facilitates the setup of ubiquitous IoT environments. In collaboration with SAP Co-Innovation Lab, DMC has also achieved SAP certification.
“Many IoT sensors lack cybersecurity capabilities,” says Mitsuhiro Yamazaki, senior advisor and former president of PSI. “However, by connecting sensors to a DMC with cybersecurity features, it becomes possible to securely store locally collected data on the DMC. This enables seamless and easy integration between SAP core systems and IoT systems.”
“The collaboration with COIL has greatly expanded the applicability of DMC,” said Masaki Fukui, former director of the PSI Cyber Security Lab and currently at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. “By combining DMC and SAP business technology platforms, SAP users around the world will be able to easily implement and take advantage of the ubiquitous Supply Chain platform.”
Integration with SAP Business Technology Platform allows deployment locations to be displayed and monitored on the dashboard.
So far, two demonstration experiments at farms have been completed between March 2019 and November 2022, and one demonstration experiment at a miso factory has also been completed. Agriculture and rural industry are just two of his application areas. Future projects could include schools, hospitals, stores, senior living facilities, and more.
Strengthening the appeal of the countryside for inland tourism
As a corporate social responsibility project, Minano Digital Eco Farm was made possible with the voluntary participation of SAP employees in Japan, who supported the project in addition to their regular jobs.
This project is supported by Japan’s unique government system, the so-called “hometown tax”, which allows citizens to choose and support the region where they were born and raised or the region they want to be involved in.
“The possibility of hometown tax payments is very popular among Japanese people,” explains Hidenori Kurosawa, deputy governor of Minano Town. “For those of us who live in rural areas, this seems to have played an important role in increasing interest in the countryside. People want to know and support their local towns.”
In fact, the appeal of small, sparsely populated communities surrounded by beautiful forest landscapes goes unnoticed by tourists in Japan’s interior.
Kurosawa says, “We want to spread the appeal of Minano by providing hands-on return gifts that allow people to come to Minano, interact with local people, and experience things that can only be found in this place.”
The Minano Digital Eco Farm project is well aligned with this strategy. In addition to promoting the appeal of Minano, we will expand our efforts to address local issues such as clearing abandoned farmland, increasing food self-sufficiency, and reducing CO2 emissions.2 Reducing emissions and increasing agricultural profitability.
Mr. Kurosawa said, “I have high hopes that this initiative will contribute to solving the town’s issues and promoting the SDGs,” and added, “I would like to thank SAP Japan for their valuable support in realizing the Minano Digital Eco Farm Project. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the volunteers.” In life. “
“MINNANO” means “for everyone” in Japanese, and is pronounced the same as the town’s name. Masaki Fukui from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications explains the idea behind the game: The problem of invisible small-scale decentralized farms facing economic challenges is witnessed all over the world. By working with SAP, we hope to inspire rural communities beyond our prefecture and perhaps beyond Japan. ”
