NEC Corporation (hereinafter 'NEC') and Sumitomo Corporation (hereinafter 'Sumitomo Corporation') have signed a strategic partnership agreement to expand global sales of NEC's agricultural ICT platform 'CropScope.'

Based on this partnership, the two companies aim to utilize Sumitomo Corporation's global network to develop markets primarily in South America and the ASEAN region. Toward this end, NEC will expand its focus on crops beyond tomatoes, and will add functions to optimize and streamline the series of processes from cultivation to harvesting and processing.

Through this partnership, we will initially introduce CropScope on a trial basis to major sugar companies in Thailand and Brazil.

As global demand for food is predicted to increase due to population growth and economic development, there are concerns that advancing climate change will have a serious impact on agricultural production. In addition, the recent pandemic and unstable global situation have caused soaring prices of agricultural materials and stagnated exports, threatening the stable supply of food.

Improving agricultural productivity is essential to ensuring food security on a global scale, and in countries where agriculture is a key industry, the challenges are the advancement of production technology and the efficiency of farm management.

Expanding sales of CropScope to emerging countries

Sumitomo Corporation has a network of regional organizations in 65 countries around the world, and operates sales and distribution businesses for agricultural materials such as pesticides and fertilizers in approximately 40 countries. In this partnership, we aim to leverage our global network to expand CropScope's sales area to Thailand, Brazil, and India, and grow our business.

Expand priority crops and comprehensively manage everything from cultivation to processing

In addition to processed tomatoes, we have expanded the crops that we focus on in CropScope's sales strategy to include sugarcane, wheat, soybeans, and corn. We have strengthened the AI ??function for the newly added crops, learning past farming data and harvest data, recommending the optimal harvest time and quantity, and adding a 'harvest planning function' to manage harvest plans and results. intend to do something. By combining this function with conventional optimization of fertilization and irrigation, it becomes possible to comprehensively manage everything from cultivation to harvesting and processing.

Future developments

To date, NEC has continuously enhanced the functionality of CropScope and collaborated with various partners to meet the diverse needs of customers involved in agricultural production. This partnership with Sumitomo Corporation, which has a wide global network and extensive knowledge in the agriculture and food fields, is an important milestone in CropScope's global sales expansion.

In addition to expanding its existing business base in the agriculture and food fields, Sumitomo Corporation is also focusing on developing new businesses that utilize next-generation technology to contribute to sustainable food production with high efficiency and low environmental impact. Masu. Among these, the field of smart farming, which contributes to the realization of safe and highly efficient food production by utilizing agricultural automation and data analysis technology, is one of the important themes, and AI technology is being established in agriculture and other fields as well. We believe that this initiative, in collaboration with NEC, is an important initiative.

Going forward, the two companies will continue to expand CropScope's target crops and functions while identifying issues and needs at agricultural production and processing sites, thereby supporting environmentally friendly and highly profitable farming globally, and contributing to sustainable agriculture and the world. We will contribute to ensuring the food security of the world.

(C) 2024 Electronic News Publishing, source ENP Newswire