Farmship, a Japanese agricultural startup, is revolutionizing the industry with its cutting-edge AI technology to aid in planting spinach. By establishing a partnership with information science firm Pi Material Design, Farmship is striving towards lower food waste and increased yields of spinach. The company is implementing a two part AI system to help manage growth and harvesting of the spinach.
The first part of the system estimates the size, rate of growth, and weight of the plant factory spinach seedlings using image recognition. The second part employs an index developed by Farmship to forecast growth, while selecting ideal spinach seedlings and rejecting underperformers to increase efficiency in production. This system has proven to be successful, increasing the ratio of properly grown spinach seedlings to 80% – a 17% improvement to the normally achieved 54%.
To optimize their technology, Farmship hopes to reduce food loss by further improving the system to account for changes in plant parameters and culture medium, along with developing an AI that can project market prices and weigh the vegetables. Furthermore, Farmship plans to extend this technology not only to lettuce, which is the most commonly produced vegetable in plant factories, but also to other green vegetables. This is the beginning to automating the most laborious and time-consuming task in farming – sorting seedlings.
The technology was created as part of a bigger effort in conjunction with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization. With the market for Japanese vegetable forecast to reach an incredible $73.55 billion by 2023, Farmship’s technology could help to maintain stable supply, reduce food loss and provide an overall better quality of product by improving yields, while simultaneously driving down costs with automation.
The startup is led by CEO Naoki Tajima, a highly experienced leader in food science and research. Tajima is a passionate innovator, with experience in starting and managing numerous projects in big-name food companies in Japan. Tajima has turned his skills and knowledge to founding Farmship and creating a technology that stands to revolutionize the industry. With Tajima’s inspiring ambition and expertise, Farmship and its AI are likely to drive the future of vegetable farming in Japan and beyond.
