"GeoMation Farm" Agriculture Information Management System

Producing rice, wheat and other crops are essential gifts from Mother Nature. These foods nutritiously fill our tables every day thanks to the help from our farmers.
GeoMation Farm is an agricultural information management system developed in response to customers who desired "applying Information Technology to agriculture". The system contributes to reduce energy usage by determining the optimum harvest time based on growth forecasting. In the case of wheat, users can reduce annual CO2 emissions by approximately 33%(*1) over the lifecycle of the crop.

*1

Estimate obtained from the Hitachi Group's System Integration Life-Cycle Assessment (SI-LCA) environmental impact evaluation.

(Released in March 2009)

If Global Warming Intensifies, Will Intuition Be Enough?

Ongoing monitoring of the crop is essential to ensuring the steady cultivation of agricultural produce so that fertilizer and other agricultural chemicals can be applied appropriately.
In Japan, the optimum harvest time for wheat lasts only one to two weeks. In fact, if wheat is harvested too early, additional energy and costs may be incurred in the drying process due to the excess water content.
In contrast, if harvesting is done too late, the risk increases that rain may cause the grain to germinate, resulting in lost commercial value of the crop. The timing of the harvest is crucial. Therefore, in the past, farmers familiar with the local climate and the growth of the wheat would have the responsibility of monitoring the moisture level by themselves, based on their experience and intuition.

Advantages of Using IT in Agriculture

(1) Energy Savings

Satellite image analysis provides a visual indication of the best time to harvest wheat, rice, and other crops. In the case of wheat, for example, the image below indicates "that as the intensity of the red increases, the more crop growth has progressed " and "blue regions are where growth is delayed".
Efficient use of the combine harvesters, tractors and other machineries can be determined with the images in order to save on fuel costs and reduce CO2 emissions. In addition, there is the possibility of saving energy by approximately 53% due to a reduction in office work, such as data management and the preparation of documents.

(2) Optimizing Chemical Use

In Japan, food safety and security are once again under scrutiny.
GeoMation Farm regulates the quantity, frequency and timing of agricultural chemical use to determine if they are being utilized appropriately.
Additionally, to ensure an optimum level of agricultural chemical application, a message appears to alert the user when an excess is applied.
By optimizing agricultural chemical usage, GeoMation Farm supports measures to ensure food safety and security, along with a bountiful harvest of agricultural produce.

Enter details of the fertilizer application and other agricultural chemicals. The current state of the field can be seen at a glance.

(3) Making Effective Use of Resources

Creating a database of land, crops, fertilizer, agricultural chemicals, and other essential agricultural resources enables these resources to be utilized to their maximum extent.
For example, if a wheat field is switched to grow cabbage, appropriate soil preparation is necessary. GeoMation Farm determines the appropriate type and quantity of fertilizer to use based on the soil conditions, crop and the stage of growth.
This ensures effective use of the land by converting the land that is unsuitable for a particular crop to grow something different rather than leaving it uncultivated.

Using SI-LCA to Estimate Reduction in Burden on Environment

The effectiveness of GeoMation Farm for reducing CO2 emissions was estimated using Hitachi's SI-LCA (System Integration Life-Cycle Assessment) methodology for evaluating environmental impact. The methodology evaluates the extent to which the impact on the environment is reduced over the entire life cycle. It covers procurement, design and development, dispatch, transport, installation, on-site work, maintenance, and use of the system, disposal, and recycling at user's side. The SI-LCA methodology complies with the guidelines collated by the Japan Forum on Eco-Efficiency (*2).
A case study of before and after the implementation of the system, covering 53 square kilometers with a wheat harvest of 24,872 tons, resulted in an annual reduction in CO2 emissions of approximately 33% over the entire lifecycle.

*2

2005 environmental efficiency assessment guidelines for ICT (information and communication technology)

• For more information about SI-LCA (Link to Hitachi Software Engineering Co.,Ltd. site)

Sharing Japan's Agricultural Experience Worldwide

GeoMation Farm has won numerous awards. One of these awards includes the Eco-products Prize, which is awarded to products or services that help reduce the impact on the environment and are innovative and highly regarded in terms of their impact on society. It is believed that the system will continue to make a contribution to the agriculture industry. The system is already in use at more than 30 sites in Japan with the intention of reducing the impact on the global environment and reducing CO2 emissions. The goal is to use the system to support agriculture in other countries based on the Japanese agricultural experience derived from these sites.

The prizes listed represent those awarded in Japan.

The Hitachi Group views the "GeoMation Farm" Agriculture Information Management System as one of the ways we can achieve our Environmental Vision 2025, with a goal of helping to reduce annual CO2 emissions by 100 million tons by 2025 through our products and services.

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