Kubota Corporation (Head Office: Naniwa-ku, Osaka, Japan; President and Representative Director: Yuichi Kitao; hereinafter “Kubota”) is working on a demonstration project to provide solutions for reducing the use of agrochemicals and labor on vineyard with Chouette, a French startup company in which Kubota invested in last November. Discussions on sales, customer support and other commercialization details are expected to begin next year.

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  A tractor with a mounted sensor on its body driving through an orchard

1. Background and Objectives

• As excessive use of agrochemicals can pollute soil, water, and the atmosphere, a target has been set to decrease the use of chemical pesticides by 50% in Europe by 2030, as part of an effort to reduce environmental impact and achieve sustainable food production. Compared to field crops such as cereals, in vineyard farming, mechanization and precision agriculture are not as advanced so the use of smart farming technology is strongly expected.
• Kubota and Chouette have been collaborating to develop solutions that reduce both the amount of chemical pesticides used and the labor required to monitor growth by integrating Chouette’s technology, which uses AI to detect disease and poor growth from vineyard imagery, and creates maps of optimal chemical application locations and volumes using Kubota’s tractors and sprayers.
• Since the demonstration tests in several vineyards showed a certain level of effectiveness, Kubota will exhibit at AGRITECHNICA, the world’s leading trade fair for agricultural machinery, to be held in Germany from November 12 to 18, 2023.
• Kubota will also work with its European agricultural machinery dealers to identify sales and customer support challenges, aiming to commercialize the solution in a few years.

2. About Chouette

Name	Chouette (https://www.chouette.vision/en/accueil-english/)
Representative	Charles Nespoulous
Head Office	Paris, France
Established	2015
Business	Provision of solutions designed to support vineyard management using image analysis and AI technologies

Information

• Video on Chouette’s products/services (English)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgy5oX9_qUQ

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