農作業を補う農機の必要性を感じた。

日本の食料の自給はこの先、どうなっていくのだろう。海外からの輸入に頼っていくのか、それとも国内自給率を高めていくのか......。「農業や、その環境がどうなっているかに興味があって」。学生時代には、酪農や小麦を作っている農家に出向いて作業を手伝うアルバイトをした。開拓で切り開かれた広大な大地で農家さんと一緒に汗を流した経験は大きい。

「人の手作業はとても大事で欠かせない。けれど農業機械の必要性も強く感じた」。農家さんが、より良く使える農機とは、どんなものだろう。そのような率直な疑問から始まったのが、今に続いている「スマート農業・農機」の研究だ。全国的に農家の高齢化と農業就業者の減少が進むなか、今後に起こるだろう農業環境の変化を見通して、農家を支援する新しい農機の開発を手がけ、すでに実用化されている。

What will our food self-sufficiency look like in the future? Will we continue to rely on imports from overseas or will we increase domestic self-sufficiency? ...... One I was interested in agriculture and the environment in which it takes place when I was a high school student. During my undergraduate student, I worked part-time helping out on dairy and wheat farms. The experience of working together with the farmers on the vast land that had been cleared by pioneering work was a great experience. I strongly felt the need for agricultural machinery. What kind of farm machinery can farmers use better? The research on "precision agriculture and AI agricultural machinery" began with such a frank question. With the aging of farmers and the decrease in the number of farmers nationwide, the company has been developing new agricultural machinery to support farmers in anticipation of the changes that will occur in the farming environment in the future, and this work has already been put to practical use.

現場主義。農家さんのそばにいること。Stay with Farmer..

次世代につなぐ「スマート農業・農機」とは?それは「農作業の効率化」?しかし「質の変化を感じる」ことは見逃せない。メーカーなどとタッグを組んで開発した中にスマート田植機(2016年度ロボット大賞優秀賞・2022年農業工学会賞)がある。この田植機には作土の深さ、土壌の肥沃度、その肥沃度に応じた可変施肥、そしてGPSなどを備える。「田植機は実際の田植えをしながら同時に圃場の状況をさまざまなにセンシングして、その後の農作業や次年度の作付け計画に役立つ情報を蓄積します」。

これらの情報を役立てて実際に活用するのは農家さんの判断にゆだねる。田植機のほか、追肥や収穫時のコンバインのスマート化に向けたシステムづくりも進行中だ。研究を続けて25年余り、田畑に出かけ「農家さんが置かれている実情や不安、悩みに接した」。これらの経験が、今の研究の原点にもなっている。「私たちができることは限られている。でも現場を大事にしながら学生さんとともに学び、未来の農業支援のあり方を考えたい」と思っている。

What is "Smart Agriculture and Farm Machinery" for the Next Generation? Is it "efficiency in farming"? However, "a sense of change in quality" should not be overlooked. Among the products developed in collaboration with manufacturers and others is a smart rice transplanter (awarded the Grand Prize for Excellence at the 2016 Robot Awards and the 2022 Society of Agricultural Engineers of Japan Award). This rice transplanter is equipped with a GPS system and other features that allow it to determine the depth of the crop soil, the fertility of the soil, and variable fertilization according to the fertility of the soil. The rice transplanter senses various conditions of the field while planting the rice, and accumulates useful information for subsequent farming operations and planting plans for the next year.

It is up to the farmer to make use of this information and actually put it to use. In addition to rice transplanters, the company is also working on a smart system for fertilizers and combine harvesters during harvest. In the more than 25 years that he has been conducting research, he has visited the fields and "come into contact with the actual conditions, concerns, and worries that farmers are facing. These experiences are the starting point for his current research. What we can do is limited," he said. But I would like to learn together with the students while valuing the field, and thinking about how we should support agriculture in the future.