About Us

Support agricultural sites with IT.
We are “Agri Info Design,Ltd.”

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    Started business in the agricultural kingdom

    Agri Info Design,Ltd. established in April 2014.
    CEO is Yasuyuki Hamada.
    In addition to developing and consulting software related to the computerization and automation of agricultural machinery for companies and organizations, we also provide farmers with IT systems that are useful for farming.
    The head office is located in Hirohiro City, Tokachi District, where agriculture is particularly vigorous, in Hokkaido.I decided here to set up the founding site for the purpose of supporting farmers in the nearest place.

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    As famous for the Agricultural Version of Car Navigation

    Our first famous smartphone application, AgriBus-NAVI, was developed in-house.
    This is an agricultural version of the car navigation system, which uses GPS to determine the position and direction of the tractor and to support straight-ahead driving.
    For example, when spraying fertilizers and pesticides, it is very difficult to run straight ahead and at regular intervals. If there are overlapping areas or areas where spraying is not possible, not only wastage occurs, but also there is a problem that weeds are reproduced and crop yield is reduced.
    By using the application, the range of the scattering trace and the running trace, which cannot be visually confirmed by the naked eye, is clearly shown on the map in a bird’s-eye view, so that the work can be done without waste.

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  Visualization of work increases efficiency and reduces fuel consumption and the cost of sprayed materials by about 10% compared to the case where no apps are used.Large-scale farms with fertilizer costs of 10 million yen per year have a significant effect on cost reductions, resulting in an epoch-making app that increases farmers’ productivity.

  This AgriBus-NAVI has won the best award at a number of startup events, including winning the Infinity Ventures Summit Launch Pad launch of new services in the fall of 2015, as well as the Start-up Japan and New Economic Summit.

  Since its launch in February 2015, more than 100,000 applications have already been downloaded worldwide, ranking third in the world market among similar applications. Our Facebook Group has more than 1,100 members are enrolled, and opinions are actively exchanged among users.The number of inquiries from foreign countries with large farms is particularly high, accounting for 90%.It’s just a technology that is supported worldwide.

Startup episode

“Appli” supporting agriculture in the middle of the field was a dream for more than 15 years.

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    CEO is ”an expert in agricultural machinery”

    Hamada, our chief executive, developed the AgriBus-NAVI, which is used by farmers around the world.
    Hamada was a so-called “expert in agricultural machinery” who had been working as a researcher in agricultural machinery development for many years at the National Institute of Agriculture and Food Technology (Agriculture and Research Organization) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries before our establishment.
    We used all of our experiences in robotic tractors and other studies for AgriBus-NAVI about 20 years ago.

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  “When I first operated the rice transplanter, there was a dancer on the other side of the ridge. In fact, I was not dancing, and I was taught by gesture that I was running while bending. I was surprised by looking behind me, and running for a long time. I was grateful to hear that the deviated part was planted again with my hands. I felt that it was very difficult to run straight and evenly.”

  The field of agricultural work is surprisingly analogue, and the operation of agricultural machinery is largely due to individual familiarity, and is particularly difficult for inexperienced people.Around 15 years ago, Hamada’s agricultural research organization started research and development as a five-year project with private companies in response to requests from a variety of farmers to “run straight and equidistant in the fields and paddies.”Hamada joined the project in its last year.

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  Be sure to deliver useful IT in your own hands.

  Hamada, who had been thinking that this technology would be most useful for agriculture in the future as it is for fields, rice paddies and crops, and farmers, urged the people around him to move to the next research. Hamada decided to launch the company with the determination that “we want to help as many farmers as possible by delivering this technology to as many farmers as possible. To do this, we need to deliver it to others by ourselves rather than relying on others.”

  Currently, the price of dedicated handsets is as high as ¥500,000 to ¥600,000, and the number of handsets with options can be as high as several million yen.
  Although several thousand units have been introduced in Hokkaido at present, they are still difficult to say that they have become popular.

Corporate philosophy

To support agriculture, which produces the most important “food” for humans, with the power of IT

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    There are two main points that we are currently pursuing.

    First, increase AgriBus-NAVI satisfaction.

    It makes it easier to use by making a GPS with higher precision that can grasp accurate positional information in-house and by making it possible to purchase the GPS as an application and a set.In addition, when work overlaps in different places, it is necessary to prevent the spraying of fertilizers and pesticides and prevent the spraying of them again, thereby enabling detailed control of work and automatic steering.

    In addition to these technologies that are useful for farming, we are also developing technologies that are useful before and after farming, i.e., for management.

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  The location, area, content, amount of work, etc. of farming work are recorded on the basis of running data such as tractors, and the data is automatically input to a personal computer through an application.Such information is very useful in planning management from next year onwards.Currently, farm work information is mostly manually input to a PC or recorded on paper, and it is difficult for farmers who are busy with farm work to record farm work every day.

  “The most important thing for farmers is to cultivate crops in front of them,” he says. “We believe that if we can concentrate on farming with our own skills, we will improve productivity and quality.”

  I would like to continue to be useful in the future by providing farmers with fields, rice paddies, crops, and IT, which is the closest to farmers.That belief has become a motivation to challenge the world.

Business overview

Through the provision of standardization technology for communication control in agricultural machinery and information and communications technology to support agricultural production
We will support people involved in agriculture to solve various problems.

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    Provision of Knowledge on Realization of Cable and Connected Agricultural Machinery

    Electronic control of agricultural machinery is one of the technologies for solving the conflicting problems of low cost and sophistication, and we will realize “Kasaki Agricultural Machinery.”The compatibility of information and communications between tractors and work machines, and the provision of “connected agricultural machinery” across manufacturers, is extremely important in order for “hard agricultural machinery” to be truly useful.

    We have a deep knowledge of the International and National Standards for Communication Control of Agricultural Machinery (ISO11783/ISOBUS/AG-PORT), and we will provide a range of solutions ranging from consulting to software development and testing to confirm compatibility of agricultural machinery.

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    Realize agricultural machinery that is hard and connective
    Development and sales of retrofit equipment

    Since agricultural machinery is generally used for a long period of time after purchase, it is very important to provide “retrofit” equipment that farmers can “upgrade” by mounting it on their own agricultural machinery in order to make the “connected and cumbersome agricultural machinery” widespread and useful for agricultural production.
    We comply with the ISO11783/ISOBUS and AG-PORT standards for communication control of agricultural machinery, and are working to develop and sell aftermarket equipment that can also work with smartphones and records agricultural work information.

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  Development and provision of information systems supporting agricultural production

  The use of ICT in agricultural production is expected to be an important technology for solving various problems such as improving productivity, ensuring safety and reliability of produced agricultural products, reducing environmental burden, and implementing sustainable agriculture.

  We also have strengths in the so-called “agricultural ICT” initiatives, ranging from GPS guidance systems and precision agricultural support systems to the construction of agricultural robotic systems. In addition to developing and providing these systems, we also provide consultation and consulting services that contribute to the resolution of related issues.