“Technology is important as the new environment changes in 25 years”
Farm Data Digital Replication Technology
Sowing following crop compatibility ‘simulation’
On the 6th (local time), the first day of the opening of CES 2023, the world’s largest electronics exhibition, the first keynote speech was given by CEO John May of Dear & Company, the world’s No. 1 agricultural machinery company. It is a well-known agricultural machinery brand called ‘John Deere’. It seems that he was selected as the keynote speaker as interest in food security increased due to the Russia-Ukraine war and climate change.
CEO John May said, “When I started doing this 25 years ago, the bigger and more powerful the machine, the more efficient it was, but now it’s completely different. Now, technology, intelligence and sustainability are more important than the size of the machine.” . He emphasized ‘technology’ as a tool to solve mankind’s problems. “Farmers are facing many challenges right now,” he said. “Weather patterns have changed, markets are fickle, and labor is scarce, making agriculture an unpredictable industry.” “We introduced technology to address specific problems, challenges and needs farmers face,” he said.
The large tractor that Dear & Company exhibited on this day is a ‘fully autonomous tractor’ using artificial intelligence (AI). It is still impossible to drive completely autonomously with a regular car in the middle of the city, but it is a different story if it is a large farm with no vehicles or human traffic. Dear & Company, farmers can handle plowing, seeding, and fertilizing by themselves with a tractor by simply operating the tractor through a smartphone. This tractor is equipped with an AI camera and high-performance GPS, so you can go around the farm without harming crops, and you can pick out only weeds and spray weed killer.
Dear & Company also introduced digital twin technology that collects data from farms and transfers them equally to the virtual world. Farmers can simulate different crops in the virtual world and then decide which crops to plant. CEO John May explained that by introducing this method, the use of herbicides and fertilizers was reduced, crop productivity was increased, and greenhouse gas emissions were reduced.