NXPO Recovery Forum held on 16 July 2020 placed a focus on smart farming with guest speaker Mr. Somsak Mauthorn, Senior Executive Vice President of Siam Kubota Corporation Co., Ltd. The forum was attended by special guest Mr. Aree Chavalitcheewingul, President of Cementhai Holding Co., Ltd., NXPO executives and staff, directors of funding units, young researchers and university faculty members.
Mr. Somsak said that Siam Kubota applied the guidance of His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej in recognizing the importance of the agricultural sector on the Thai economy to its business operation. The company aims at promoting sustainable agriculture by introducing knowledge, innovation and technology to its extensive networks to enable farmers to achieve production cost reduction and productivity improvement, as well as increase their incomes. Community learning centers have been set up as a venue for knowledge exchange and technology demonstration.
To successfully employ technology and innovation to enhance Thai agricultural sector, Mr. Somsak stressed that understanding limitations and challenges of the sector is the key. Challenges of Thai agricultural sectors include water management, climate change, low productivity, labor shortage, debt among agricultural households and aging society.
Siam Kubota’s integrated agriculture management combines cultivation techniques with the use of appropriate agricultural machineries to yield precision agriculture. It also involves a systematic planning from upstream to downstream, covering the following steps: land preparation, soil preparation, planting, caring, harvesting, post harvesting, processing and logistics management. Kubota’s integrated agriculture management enables growers to control growing conditions such as soil and water and use the weather forecast, resulting in better yields and incomes and cost saving. It also increases competitiveness of Thai farming sector and helps minimize environmental impact, leading to sustainable agriculture. To encourage the adoption of modern technology, demonstration program and hands-on practice is incorporated into the activities of community learning centers.
Many of Siam Kubota’s innovative technologies and solutions were the results of collaboration with organizations in the public, private and academic sectors. Some of the examples were co-developed with agencies under the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) such as agriculture drone, rice crop calendar mobile application, navigation system, leaf color chart (LCC) mobile application, weather station, mobile application to check the location and status of an agricultural machine, smart plant watering system and greenhouse. The company also engaged in joint research to investigate land use optimization, electricity generation on agricultural land, and the development of agricultural product grading machine. The company R&D department is encouraged to work with research team in the public sector to expedite the development of innovative solutions in a timely manner. With the recent COVID-19 outbreak, health and personal hygiene became major concerns of the public. The company therefore provided knowledge on and promoted the use of greenhouse. Understanding the power of young innovators, the company also supports startups in agricultural solutions through an innovation competition and business acceleration program.
NXPO President Dr. Kitipong Promwong commented that in addition to aging society, interest to pursue education in agriculture is declining among the younger generation. The company’s initiatives on communities learning centers and startup promotion offered strategies for policy development to modernize the agricultural education and change the youth’s perception on agriculture that it is not only about crops and cultivation, but also innovations and businesses. Making agriculture a new trend will attract more young generation to career in agriculture and help transition Thai agricultural sector to modern agriculture. Dr. Kitipong suggested to elevate the company’s learning center concept to KUBOTA Farm Academy, with support from the universities to develop curriculum and provide a certification. The academy would play a critical role in smart farming transformation.
