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Paper 15
Paper 15
Most of the information technology (IT) systems currently used by Japanese farmers
are used for duties such as filing tax records and traceability records to meet the
requirements of non-farmers in the government and distribution industry. We
focused on introducing the latest technologies such as sensors, wireless networks,
and Cloud computing to radically revise approaches to agriculture and conduct
business feasibility studies to establish a hypothetical model of Cloud services that
make a genuine contribution to agriculture. We have conducted demonstration tests
with the cooperation of two Japanese farming corporations. This hypothetical model
has much in common with on-site operations such as medical/nursing care and
maintenance besides agriculture, so we are working to develop it across a broader
range of fields. On the basis of the knowledge acquired through actual agricultural
operations and subsequent analysis, we describe the affinity between agriculture
and Cloud computing and discuss how the technologies used in the demonstration
test can be applied to other fields.
446 FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J., Vol. 46, No. 4, pp. 446–454 (October 2010)
M. Hori et al.: Application of Cloud Computing to Agriculture and Prospects in Other Fields
At Fujitsu, we aim to introduce information labor. This know-how takes the form of rules
technology (IT) into agricultural practices and such as “If A happens, then do B.” This is the
connect agriculture into a single large industry in combination of knowledge management that has
order to contribute to efforts to improve Japan’s struggled for many years between production
self-sufficiency in food production and to develop planning and IT in secondary industries, where
foreign markets for Japan’s superior agricultural it is judged to be worth making sufficient effort
technology. and its effectiveness is being verified. On the
In this paper, on the basis of the findings of subject of knowledge management, due to the
on-site agricultural studies and their analysis, ideal of converting tacit knowledge into explicit
we discuss the suitability of Cloud computing knowledge, there is a tendency to end up focusing
for agriculture and its application to other on how to make better-tasting vegetables.3),4)
technological fields. Although this sort of agricultural technology is
of course important, it has been found to be very
2. Agriculture: method and value difficult to use IT for this purpose. We therefore
of entering the field set out by concentrating on points that are
2.1 Agriculture and IT directly connected to operation and management
The introduction of IT into agriculture has and points related to how knowledge should be
hitherto been performed in areas where farmers stored and utilized.
have been more or less obliged to use it to comply 2) Improved communication and information
with government and distribution industry sharing (in company meetings, etc.)
rules, such as filing tax returns and maintaining We have shown that by using a projector
traceability records. It cannot be said for certain to display the contents of a personal computer
that IT has been useful in actual agricultural screen, one can deliver routine work reports
production. By focusing on the following two and share information between experienced and
points, we investigated an IT system that should inexperienced farm workers, including specific
be useful for agricultural production. information about harmful insects or growing
• Increased efficiency for agriculture as an conditions, and offer expert advice.
industry
• Succession of agricultural technology 2.2 Summary of demonstration
As a result of performing fieldwork related On the basis of fieldwork findings obtained
to these issues at agricultural locations, we first after experiencing actual farm work for more
demonstrated the need to propose examples than one month in total (Figure 1), we thought
where the work style of agriculture itself is that it might be possible to support agricultural
replaced by production processes such as an work with IT through the flow sequence shown in
improved plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle and Figure 2 (input → data storage → visualization
improved communication & information sharing. → analysis → instruction). In this section, we
1) Improved PDCA cycle (clarification of describe the mechanism of this sequence and
workflow such as issuing instructions and present a summary of the verification procedure.
reporting) We used Web applications and mobile
We have found that the design and phone applications to build prototypes of the
implementation of farm work is decided every four functions listed below, and we performed
day on the basis of experience and intuition verification experiments with the cooperation
comprising a large body of know-how gathered of farming corporations at two locations in
by veteran producers over many years of Japan (an outdoor vegetable farm in Miyazaki
FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J., Vol. 46, No. 4 (October 2010) 447
M. Hori et al.: Application of Cloud Computing to Agriculture and Prospects in Other Fields
Sensing the conditions of farmland or work situations by using Analyze large amounts of data to provide
various cameras, sensors, and equipment. information for performing optimal farming.
Produce standard
Draw up optimal
model of work by
work plan.
veteran producers.
distribution 10
Detect foreign
Work information
5
0 objects/intruders in Perform status
Work history
1
3
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
19
448 FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J., Vol. 46, No. 4 (October 2010)
M. Hori et al.: Application of Cloud Computing to Agriculture and Prospects in Other Fields
FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J., Vol. 46, No. 4 (October 2010) 449
M. Hori et al.: Application of Cloud Computing to Agriculture and Prospects in Other Fields
five universal values of Cloud computing: support cannot be provided for this).
• Reduction of initial costs Check: Perform progress management and
• Allocation of resources on demand without patrol the cultivated plots.
limit Act: Make any necessary modifications to the
• Maintenance and upgrades performed in the plans.
back-end With this workflow, basic sensing and
• Easy rapid development including knowledge management techniques6),7) are likely
collaboration with other systems in the to be the main ones used to provide Cloud
Cloud services.
• More possibilities for global service
development 3.1 Resources
As a specific service based on these values, As mentioned in the previous section,
we envisaged the mechanism shown in Figure 3, data is routinely collected. This data includes
where a PDCA cycle is applied to agricultural weather and soil data, GPS data, image data,
work, which involves successively performing and worker observations, and data related to
obtaining feedback from the following actions: cultivated plots of land. The quantity is 5–10
Plan: Draw up production and operation megabytes per case per day. Since agricultural
plans. data has to be stored for 10–30 years according
Do: Gather work results (this involves to a report by the National Agriculture and Food
performing the actual work on-site, though IT Research Organization5) and since between half a
Plan
Business plan (year/day)
(planting, cultivation, materials,
human resources, yield)
Do
Act Work log
Plan modification (work carried out, results)
(work details, work plan) Sharing information
(Farming equipment, agricultural
chemicals, fertilizers, insect pests)
Farm manager
GPS (humans/farm equipment) Various sensors
Check
Results of patrolling
Status of plot (sensors/cameras)
Weather/
market conditions
Fujitsu Cloud services Reference
Visualization
knowledge
database
■ State of field
Farming plan Patrolling support
Various sensors
management management
Cultivated plot Best practice ■ Action
database Data mining, sensing platform, database
visualization technology
Sensing Knowledge management
Figure 3
PDCA cycle and Cloud services in agriculture.
450 FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J., Vol. 46, No. 4 (October 2010)
M. Hori et al.: Application of Cloud Computing to Agriculture and Prospects in Other Fields
million and one million cases are targeted in the Indeed, businesses of this sort are tending to
development of business, the total amount of data decline in western developed countries where
exceeds 100 petabytes (less than the medical field they have become more specialized since the last
where the data storage requirements of personal century. However, companies such as Google are
health records are expected to reach 2 petabytes tending towards vertical integration. To promote
per patient). the use of the Cloud services offered by Fujitsu,
To obtain advice and recommendations we should consider the need for tools that can
by analyzing this stored data, analysis engines reach individual users. In this sense, Fujitsu
such as data miners are operated on this large possesses a powerful arsenal for competing in
amount of data in the Cloud. Although it is not Cloud services.
possible to calculate parameters such as the Since the initial prototype stage, the farm
correct MIPS (million instructions per second) work management system used in the verification
value, suitable central processing unit and input/ trials was aimed at providing total support for
output performances are required. In terms of agricultural businesses by linking together the
performance, it is clear that highly efficient following three systems belonging to the Sales
(high sustained performance) parallel computer Unit, Farming, Forestry & Fishery Systems of
technology or the like is necessary. Fujitsu Ltd., Fujitsu Kyushu Systems Ltd., and
Fujitsu Hokkaido Systems Ltd.:
3.2 Maintenance 1) Business management system
When IT systems are introduced into any System for performing financial analysis
new field, not just agriculture, frequent bug fixes and filing tax reports with the support of tax
and upgrades are needed. In Cloud computing, counselors.
instead of an engineer having to visit an office 2) Production history system
to do this work, the maintenance work for Production history logging system that
hundreds of thousands or even millions of users provides traceability records leading to food that
can be done simply by amending and adding to is safer and more dependable.
the software on a single system in the Cloud 3) Good Agricultural Practice operational
center; this could solve many of the problems support
associated with maintenance. Moreover, in System that efficiently manages safety
Cloud computing, there are no disparities in the and quality improvements in farm produce by
software versions being used by different users, supporting the operation of the Good Agricultural
which leads to improved usability in addition to Practice farm work standard.
reduced maintenance problems. These systems have been utilized by many
users such as JA (Japan Agricultural Cooperatives)
3.3 System cooperation and agricultural farming corporations since the
Fujitsu’s strengths lie not only in client-server computing era. The migration of
individual elemental technologies, but also in the business management system to software as
our ability to integrate various technologies a service (SaaS) was completed in the first half of
together. Even from a global perspective, 2009, and this service has now been launched on
there are very few businesses that can combine Fujitsu’s Service Oriented Platform. Migration of
skills in such diverse fields as sensors, mobile the production history system to SaaS completed
phones and other terminals, network services in the first half of 2010. In the future, we expect
(security, authentication, multimedia), business to tie together the cultivated land records and
applications, and back-end server storage. profit-loss calculations for each plot of land, and
FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J., Vol. 46, No. 4 (October 2010) 451
M. Hori et al.: Application of Cloud Computing to Agriculture and Prospects in Other Fields
SaaS layer
Medicine/ Environment
Agriculture Maintenance nursing (SmartGrid) ・・・
PaaS layer
New layer
Image GPS
Data mining Authentication Communication
processing data processing
IaaS layer
Operating
Server Storage Network Terminal Sensor
system
Figure 4
Proposed layer structure for Cloud services.
452 FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J., Vol. 46, No. 4 (October 2010)
M. Hori et al.: Application of Cloud Computing to Agriculture and Prospects in Other Fields
References
1) Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries:
Statistical data. (in Japanese).
http://www.maff.go.jp/j/tokei/index.html
FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J., Vol. 46, No. 4 (October 2010) 453
M. Hori et al.: Application of Cloud Computing to Agriculture and Prospects in Other Fields
Eiji Kawashima
Fujitsu Ltd.
Mr. Kawashima is engaged in the
development of the new business
frontier for Cloud services.
454 FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J., Vol. 46, No. 4 (October 2010)