As the average age of farmers globally creeps higher and retirement looms, Japan has a solution: robots and driver-less tractors.
The G7 agriculture ministers meet in Japan’s northern prefecture of Niigata this weekend for the first time in seven years to discuss how to meet increasing food demand as aging farmers retire without successors.
With the average age of Japanese farmers now 67, Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Hiroshi Moriyama is to outline his idea of replacing retiring growers with Japanese-developed autonomous tractors and backpack-carried robots.
US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has warned that left unchecked, aging farmers could threaten the ability to produce the food the world needs.
The average age of growers in developed countries is now about 60, according to the UN.
Japan plans to spend ￥4 billion (US$36 million) in the year through March next year to promote farm automation and help develop 20 different types of robots, including one that separates over-ripe peaches when harvesting.
“There are no other options for farmers but to rely on technologies developed by companies if they want to raise productivity while they are graying,” said Makiko Tsugata, senior analyst at Mizuho Securities Co in Tokyo. “The government should help them adopt new technologies.”
Moriyama said at the beginning of a bilateral meeting with Vilsack yesterday that he wants to serve the guests premium Kobe beef, which Japan wants to promote overseas.
The amount of uncultivated farmland in Japan almost doubled in the past two decades, reaching 420,000 hectares last year, as farmers retired, data from the ministry show.
About 65 percent of growers are 65 years or older. The dearth of young people willing to take up farming has increased concerns that Japan’s reliance on food imports will deepen, with the nation already getting about 60 percent of its food supplies from overseas.
“Aging farmers are threatening the sustainability of agricultural communities in Japan as the population globally is expanding and raising the need to boost food production to meet demand,” Moriyama said in his opening remarks to the seven-member meeting.
“We, as the members of the Group of Seven nations, share common problems and want to discuss them together for a solution,” he said.
Kubota Corp, Japan’s largest maker of agricultural machinery, has already developed its first prototype autonomous tractor for use in rice paddies. Iseki and Co and Yanmar Co are also developing autonomous tractors and harvesters with Hitachi Ltd developing systems for farm machinery.
It is not just vehicles: Kubota is also developing and marketing a suit-like device to help farmers harvest and carry fruit and vegetables.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
RSS