Sharing Economy

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Kengo Kitaura

Let me discuss what I am thinking lately since I have been inspired by one of the blog articles by Mr. Kato, “The business style of ‘the sharing economy’ has been exploding in Asia. Food safety and security are more essential keys than low prices”.
(Sorry, this blog is written by Japanese)

Since I have a lots of opportunities to visit another countries, I am super tired of being ripped-off in every considerable way. Nuisances by low-quality-taxi drivers (aka “rip-off” drivers), such as purposely detours, ignoring or refusing me a ride, are kind of easy ones. I have an experience, which is that an unfamiliar guy, who was insisting that he was one of his friends, barged into a cab and offered me a sightseeing guide or tried to take me a shopping by force. Fortunately, yet I haven’t had anything horrible one, like a burglary. However, one of my friends has experienced a terrible one at Tiananmen Square in China. He was taken to an off-street by a driver of a cyclo taxi (a bicycle taxi) and was surrounded and threatened by a gang group.

When I went to Vietnam for the first time, I was ripped-off by a taxi driver also. Since then, I am just holding distrust all taxi drivers in each country in general. However, my distrust was completely blew away by using Uber while I was staying in Hanoi for a whole August. It was a very shocking surprise I couldn’t even believe. The drivers of Uber were very polite, each of the car was clean, and the fees were clearly reasonable and amazingly cheaper than other taxies. I couldn’t stop thinking that this was what the era was seeking for and no one could stop this flow with any sort of forces.

The characters of the sharing economy business are generating and uniting lots of micro enterprises (ultra-small-scale independent businesses) and uncovering the fact of that enterprises with large top-down managements will be ended up near future. This Uber and Airbnb on Mr. Kato’s blog are great examples of this fact, I think.

In fact, it can be said that the same thing is happening to the field of agriculture. Because of the systematic efficiency and the cost reductions by the enterprises with huge-scale plantations, food products were successfully distributed to each country and brought some profit to the world. It was four years ago that we launched our plantation business in Cambodia because we also felt that the field of agriculture was going to be a big business due to the population growth and the food supply.

However, in the middle of the way, we have realized that this business won’t last long. Well, it is impossible in the first place to ask local people to do high-quality works with only three dollars per day. In addition, the daily allowance for the labor is increasing as the economic condition is improving. Now, as the daily allowance for the labor, we have to pay minimum five dollars per person, and depending on the season, it is seven or eight dollars per person. This amount is twice as big as the amount when we had started our farm. So, in the long run, if we’d like to own a large-scale plantation, we have only two choices; one is that making a methodical unmanned system or a perfect automation system (it is very hard to have either on in a developing country), and the other one is building enforced slavery by using economic slaves under the justice, which is “we are paying money to each worker”.

Additionally, as the business is getting bigger, frauds, garbage, and mistakes will be probably happened. Then, in order to prevent these issues, we have to install and maintain another system, which needs more cost as a result.

Huge taxi companies, huge hotel chains, and huge plantations are in the same boat. Each of them used to be a business model of the top-down management, which does the ultimate cost down to gain the biggest profit by uniting and managing inefficient small enterprises. On the other hand, under this business model, it is very hard to maintain products’ quality and eventually a company has to pay more attention and money to fix each problem which come out everywhere in their business.

It is said that the number of the guestrooms owned by Hilton Group, the biggest hotel chain in the world, and the number of the guestrooms registered on Airbnb are finally same, which is 600,000 rooms. Which one do you think, Hilton Group or Airbnb, goes along with the era? Hilton Group is a huge hotel chain but needs to manage all of this massive scale of rooms with their own top-down management. Meanwhile, Airbnb is a new business model but each owner of the hotels of Airbnb works very hard to improve his/her hotel quality to make a profit. The answer is as clear as day, don’t you think?

I think this is the exact example which may happen in the field of agriculture. By suggesting specific advantages to each ultra-small-scale independent farmer (a micro enterprises), we develop a model of a network organization to increase an individual productivity. Uber and Airbnb have proved that using internet makes even the network organization, not the top-down organization (in short, a business model which a boss orders everything to his/her employee),capable to get highly motivated people together to increase the productivity as a virtual huge-scale-organization.

As Mr. Kato is saying on his blog, the service of “the sharing economy” is comfortable for not only the users but the workers as well…, that is probable a key for the business explosion.

Urbanisation

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Kengo Kitaura

This article, which is saying that the growth of the urban population is getting bigger from now on, definitely helps you understand the demographics and the impact easily.

Urbanisation is the most essential issue for a population theory.
(Sorry, this article is written by Japanese)

A few years ago, I saw a data, which said that the world urban ratio had reached 51% and it was expected that the ratio would increase up to 70% within next forty years. Well, it is said that the world population will increase to ten billion by 2050. So if all the facts are true, it can be said that the urban population will be seven billions by 2050 as well, which is almost the same number as the current world population.

Since the current ratio of the urban population to the rural population is 1 to 1, the number of the urban population and the rural population is the same, which is 3.5 billion for each. In short, the current fact, which is that one farmer raises and provides food just for one urban person, will be changed in the future since the urban population will be seven billion and the rural population will be 3.5 billion within next forty years. Under this expectation, one farmer has to raise and provide food for more than two urban persons. .

Well, it is a little bit different story, but since I came to a developing country and started to observe the local farmers, I have realized a very simple fact, which is that there are only a few people who choose to be and work as a farmer here. They were born in this little farm village by chance and they raise some plants with their traditional but old way because there are no different choices in their life at all. Or it can be said that they just farm because all their neighbors do. Their life, which is just a little better than living off the land, is a real and typical farmer’s life in this developing country. What they do is not an “agriculture business”, it is just a part of “housework” to live, which is the same as cleaning and doing laundry.

As we want to finish cleaning and laundry easily, they also want to get their housework, “growing plants”, done easily and quickly. Therefore, even how often Non-Government Organizations send volunteers and how hard they teach agriculture to the locals, the efforts of the volunteers just ends up fruitlessly. The volunteers, who don’t mind how long or how hard they work, try to teach and train the locals to produce something better. However, on the other hand, what the locals want is knowledge how they can grow plants without any single effort.

Well, let’s say there is one young guy, who cooks without any interests. He just cooks because he needs to live. Would you call him a chef? I would not. We should not call him a chef, we should not send a professional chef to teach him how to cook as well. For him, sending a professional brings nothing at all because he just doesn’t want to cook. When you think about an agriculture business in a developing country, just remember this example because it probably helps you a lot (lol).

Anyway, for that reason, the most of “people who are categorized as farmers” in a rural area don’t want to do agriculture. They tend to choose an urban life if they could earn money more easily and have a better life. On the other hand, the ratio of people who choose to be and work as a farmer will be higher among the people who stay in a farm area. For the people who decide to risk his/her life as a professional farmer, the agricultural market will be automatically twice as big as the current one in next forty years. Of course, the impact of the food consumption of the people who live off the land and the people who enjoy the urban life is a different level. Therefore, it can be said that the actual expand of the agricultural market could be more than twice as the current one.

So…, while developing AGRIBUDDY, I am recently thinking that having a partnership with “the people who have chosen to be a professional farmer” is a right way to build an agricultural business here… well, let’s wait and see how it goes.

Data shows Japanese agri-problems

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Kengo Kitaura

I am going to stay in Hanoi, Vietnam for a month starting from today to the end of August. The main purpose of living in Hanoi is that making a team to speed up the development of AGRIBUDDY, which is reaching the best part of completing and launching all of the facilities. Although I sound like I am so energetic for this development, I am kind of useless here right now since I can’t even write a code. So, the thing I am doing here is just being careful and quiet not to bother the engineers who are really focusing on their job.

Well, today’s blog is about there are many interesting facts going on at developing countries in Asia, where many users of AGRIBUDDY are living. A various data of the agriculture of each of these countries tell us that there are many facts we should think about.

First of all, let’s take a look at the start-ups of the field of agriculture in the U.S, which are recently booming. The number of the famers (we can say ‘people who does the agriculture business’) in the U.S is approximately one million. Massive plow lands in the U.S, which are 168MM hectares in total and cover 10% of the plow land of the world, are owned by only one million farmers. This means that 153 hectares (Little bit bigger than Augusta National Golf Club) of the plow land is owned by one farmer and it makes approximately $1600 sales per 1 hectares (10,000㎡ or 2.47ac).

Let’s talk about Cambodia, the country I am currently living in. The number of people who do any kind of agricultural businesses in Cambodia is 3.8 million, which is about four times as big as the U.S. On the other hand, the total size of the plow land is 4.2MM hectares, which is about 1/40 of the plow land of the U.S. The yearly seals of 1-hectar-plow land in Cambodia is approximately $1200 and one farmer owns 1.1 ha on average. So, on a simple level, the annual sales (not annual income) is about $1320 and this number proves how poor the farmers in Cambodia are.

The reason why the productive value per 1 hectare of both the U.S and Cambodia are such a low is that both of them grow the low-value-added products, which are commodity products, such as corns, wheats, and rice. However, the farmers of the U.S are succeeded to gain some profits by producing huge amount of crops by implementing a model of “the large-scale production with a small group people”. In Cambodia (actually in any developing countries), they also grow the low-value-added products as the U.S does, but they do their agriculture business with a labor-intensive-method. Therefore, it makes sense that the farmers in Cambodia never be able to be rich no matter how hard they work.

Let’s talk about my country, Japan. Japan, which has many agricultural problems in many ways, has surprisingly $11,000 seals per 1 hectare and it seems like Japan is very good at the agriculture like an A-student in a school. However, by looking at it from another angle, we can see some problems, which we knew there would be.

The chart above is showing a comparison between the agriculture in Israel, which is known as one of the agricultural developed countries and the one in Japan. First of all, please take a look at the number of production value per one farmer. Compare to the number of Japan, which is about $30,000, the one of Israel is $120,000, which is four times bigger than the amount of Japan. Furthermore, the value per 1 hectare is $10,000 (Japan) and $20,000 (Israel), which means the difference between them is close to the double. Furthermore again, let’s take a look at the size of the plow land owned by one farmer. One farmer in Israel has 2.5 times bigger plow land than the plow land owned by one Japanese farmer. Let me explain this fact in short;

“The agriculture in Japan never pursues the thorough productivity. Since each of plow land is owned by Japanese workers with high labor cost, the productive value of the agriculture is not even close to the average income of Japanese workers of other business fields.”

In short, the first problem is that the number of the farmers is too big for the size of the plow land in Japan. I think it works better if we reduce the number of the farmers to 1/3 of the present number. The next problem is that the productive value per size is very small. Even the country, which is located in the middle of desert and spend 60% of the national budget as the defense expenditure, can make some profits by implementing its agriculture effectively. The fact, which is that the farmers in Japan make only half of the profit of that country, brings the result, which is “there are so many, actually more than necessary unmotivated farmers staying in the agriculture business in Japan.

I am pretty sure if these unmotivated farmers leave their land to the motivated farmers and start another jobs, these problems will be resolved immediately. However, on the other hand, I know there are some reasons we can’t even reveal are protecting the Japanese farmers. Well, even though we analyze the issues of the agriculture in Japan, there is little thing we can do to change these facts. On the other hand, regarding developing countries, there is a lot we can do. Since the labor fee of the developing countries is pretty low at first, if the farmers can grow some high-value-added-products, their life will be several times as good as the present life. The focus AGRIBUDDY is aiming at exists in these facts.

Well, I am sorry, I didn’t mean to write such a long blog. Anyway, let me say hello to everyone in Hanoi and I would appreciate if all of you could accept and take care of me starting from today.

The border of the land and the boarder of the nation

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Kengo Kitaura

In Cambodia, where border lines of lands are very unclear compared to Japan, it is not a surprise that our neighbors ignore the border of the land. They intrude into our land more than dozens of meters and start to grow their crops without our permission. Of course as soon as we find out, we report it to the local leader, then we pull the crops out and put the stakes, which were moved by the neighbors without notice, back to the original position. Sometimes we have very disquiet in the air with everyone who is on the spot.

No one wants to have any trouble, of course. However, we should avoid the fact that someone trespasses and intrude into your property without any permission for no reasons. Fortunately, there is no huge trouble yet since all of us are just civilians with no weapons. Protecting your property is normal, so I am pretty sure that there are few people who feel sense of discomfort to protect own property from others.

However, if you have your own house and lands across or face to the international border and you can have a trouble with neighbors such as easily. Then, it is a totally different story and it is not as easy as the normal trouble. Well, first of all, we need to understand the border of your neighbor’s land is the actual international border as well. Therefore, if something happens, even it is a tiny happening, the situation could be serious as the soldiers with machineguns get together to ready for a war.

The police of your own country or the local government leaders are useless at this kind of situation. The neighbors are deadly serious and insist, “You are the one who cross the border and intrude into our land without any permission”, and the soldiers are already here and ready to kill you with no hesitation. So again, what the police or the government leaders can do for you under this situation?

Since all the border lines of Japan are located at sea, no one in Japan has the situation, which is that “the border line of your property” is the same as the international border line. However, in this Cambodia (their neighbor, Vietnam as well), there are many farmers who owns their land at the very delicate areas.

Both of the government of Cambodia and Vietnam, who focus on the piece and the economic development most importantly, are working very closely (it is said that the government of Cambodia is the puppet regime of the government of Vietnam). However, at this moment, even between Cambodia and Vietnam, a fragile and a touch-and-go situation occurs daily basis.

89BF1308-BFFB-49BA-A264-45320030854D_cx0_cy4_cw0_mw1024_s_n_r1
Cambodian farmers face to Vietnam solders at a border area (Source Voice of America)
http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/clash-vietnam-cambodia-border/2845262.html

cambodia-vietnam-border-clashes
Right ; Cambodian. Left ; Vietnamese (Source International Business Times)
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/clashes-between-authorities-civilians-vietnam-cambodian-border-leave-dozens-injured-1508879

I don’t know whose affirmation is correct. Unfortunately, only one of them is correct, not both. If one of the affirmations is correct, that means the other one is completely wrong without any doubts, which automatically means that they just come and steal other’s property intentionally. Like my neighbors, there are many people who lives with a shameless rule, such as the “first-come, first-served” rule, and they think it is lucky if their neighbors don’t complain. The number of people those who live with this way is definitely bigger than we expect, that is very unfortunate.

I am definitely against wars and I definitely don’t want to kill anyone or be killed by someone. I rather think we don’t need any international borders. Furthermore, I also think that possessing own nationals and own lands is the biggest cause which sets up complicated issues. However, if I apply the same logic to a smaller scale, like my family and my friends, I would protect my own property if someone tries to steal it intentionally and illegally. Yes, I would do it even though they threatened me by violence.

Of course in Cambodia, there is a law to protect individual assets. There is also the judicial branch of the government (it is kind of bullshit though) to enforce it. Also, among the nationals, there are organizations, such as the International Court of Justice and United Nation, to declare the rules of what we can do or cannot do. However, on the other hand, it is also true that the number of the people those who ignore the rules and start illegal things with a thought of “it is lucky if no one say anything” or “I don’t care whoever says whatever”, is getting bigger endlessly.

Although it is egregiousness that we start to set the illegal actions, it is just a fantasy to think “if we don’t do anything, they won’t do anything either”. That is why thinking what we should do for the best when someone sets up something nasty to us is an assignment we need to think about all the time.

Well, it is said that the Prime Minister Hun Sen wrote a letter to the President Obama to ask his help to prove the legitimacy of Cambodia by using the map of the border line negotiated in 1963. Well, we will see what will happen.

Fact or fiction? The dream super crop

Posted on June 27, 2015 by Kengo Kitaura

Although we are growing crops called cassavas right now, we are also paying attention to crops called sweet sorghum. Sweet sorghum is a crop, which could play an important role for the world food supply and the energy supply. Since its seed has so much protein and its stem has a great sugar content as well, it is possible to produce alcohol (bio fuel) by fermenting the juice of sweet sorghum. In addition, it is also known as a crop which has a high-yielding.

I heard that one of my Cambodian friends, he owns a farm as well, was going to have some tests to grow this sweet sorghum on a large scale, so I just visit him to listen to his story. He was saying, “I am thinking to grow a crop called super sorghum, which one of the Japanese companies has already succeeded to grow in Indonesia. In order to produce basic materials of the biomass power generation, we make pellets with super sorghum stems and Mitsui & Co., Ltd from Japan is going to purchase them”. Two facts, one is that a Japanese company has already done this test in Indonesia and the other one is that Mitsui & Co., Ltd is going to purchase the pallets from Cambodian farmers, made me so surprised, so I decided to study about this super sorghum a little bit.

The company, which does the business with the super sorghum, is a corporation in Singapore called SOL ASIA HOLDINGS PTE., and its parent company is SOL Holdings, one of the listed companies of JASDAQ (6636). Until few years ago, they were in the field of semiconductor business, however since all the member of the management were completely changed, they have started to do the business with the super sorghum. In the twinkling of an eye, they made a great success, which even caught an attention of the Indonesian government, and now they are trying to get their hands on Cambodia while expanding their business to Mexico. It can be said that they are the company carried all before it.

Their current stock price is 242 yen and the market capitalization is four billion and three hundred million yen. I thought that even though they had a great success, the stock price (I mean the corporate performance) didn’t reflect it, so I did some researches on their IRs and found one of them, which was issued on July 3, 2014, showing an interesting fact.
http://www.sol-hd.jp/pdf/20140703.pdf

In short, it was just one of the corporation notice, which was saying “we have issued the stock option”. However, the number of the stock option they issued is 2,002,000 stocks, which covers 11.16% of the total number of their issued stock, which is 17,933,612 stocks. Furthermore, they have set two conditions in order to enforce the stock options, which are; “in the case of the stock price is over 800 yen per stock at least once (even at least ‘moment’) between present and May 31, 2016” and “in case of the sales amount of March 2015 or March 2016 exceeds over two billion and four hundred million yen”. According to this fact, it ab be said that they are a company, which adopt an amazing game-like compensation structure. Well, their current stock price is 242 yen and this amount is still far away to enforce the conditions of the stock options (it means the condition, with which you can get stocks for free), so I was wondering what was going on and took a look at their stock price chart from the past.

http://www.nikkei.com/markets/company/chart/chart.aspx?scode=6636&ba=9&type=6month

Well, well, the stock price had exceeded the amount totally! Moreover, the price respectfully exceeded over 800 yen for only one day! After that, it went down outstandingly to the level of 200 yen and it looks like it keeps staying there, no sign to boost again.

Anyway, one of the conditions is completed, so if the sales amount closed on next March reaches two billion and four hundred million yen, all the management team will get entitlements to gain a massive number of stocks. Of course, even after they get the stocks, the price has to be over 372 yen, otherwise, there is no profit to them. Well, even though I am just an amateur for the stock market, I am able to see that their stocks or their conditions is as suspicious as delusion. I’ve been wondering whether Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission or whatever it is called comes and investigates them or not.

I mean, I don’t see any connection between the field of agriculture, which needs hard work and persistent improvements, and “the ex-semiconductor company”, which uses their stocks for their money game…, is it really ok? The story, which Mitsui & Co., Ltd buys the pallet made of super sorghum in Cambodia, is really true?

Well, if the business of the super sorghum by SOL HOLDINGS is true and if the Cambodians, who simply believe this business and do the test of the super sorghum, make a great success at end, that is, of course, the best scenario. However, I don’t know exactly why but various things weigh on my mind. Of course I told my Cambodian friend what I’ve found from the research and how I felt about the company. Well, I heard that it is very hard to change people’s minds especially after he/she has believed and made up his/her decision. And first of all, it is only my guess that the company is suspicious…

I just hope Cambodians won’t have any nasty experience anymore because of Japanese companies.

Official AGRIBUDDY has been released!

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Kengo Kitaura

AGRIBUDDY β version was released on November 17th in 2014 as an internet application service for farmers in developing country. At a start, we have used it for ourselves to major the hectares of our farms with its GPS function and let some real local farmers (And our team Japanese farmers who are challenging in agribusiness in Cambodia) to use AGRIBUDDY only with selected function to see their reactions for the gadget and seeking the points to improve and to find right direction of AGRIBUDDY.

How could we let local farmers, who have never even touched smartphones, or don’t even know what an internet is, use and enjoy AGRIBUDDY well? How could we minimise their irrational decisions they make or, act they do because of a minimum information and data they have. We have been focusing on there and been pondering the essential functions for the system.

What we came up as our first answer for this is to build network of all farmers in developing country. Making them able to share correct and accurate skills or information by construct networking of local farmers who might never once step out 50 km far from their home and lives in a society with closed information. We realised that Let them able to show their work or result to others and receive recognition or appraisal can be a big first step to improve agriculture of developing country.

As in the article I wrote in the other day “The things people in poverty want”, the number of smartphone holders are increasing even in Cambodia where seems to be the perfect example of developing country with poverty. A price of smartphones or any other cutting edge technology gadget are becoming cheaper day by day and internet coverage area is expanding rapidly as it is reaching even to deep into jungle. Because of such dramatic shift I am actually encountering, I can clearly see the people who have been forgotten from the world of techs and ITs will be creating new network with smartphones they will have in very near future.

If there is such future is coming soon, I want to build and shape it with our hands. I know that everyone is thinking “Well it will now work that easy!” and that is exactly why I want to challenge on it.

And, as we release our official version of AGRIBUDDY, our Hong Kong established AGRIBUDDY will be working fund raising with Scentan Ventures which has strong connection to world wide venture capital investment. With this action, we will rev up a speed of development with feedbacks and we will tackle on to build only and the biggest farmers network in developing country.

Agriculture is sizzling!

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Kengo Kitaura

This is the article my friend Kazu, CEO of Framgia, posted on his facebook “Why an agriculture that is decreasing in Japan is considered as growing industry in the world?”

http://blogos.com/outline/102779/ (The source is from Economist magazine)

As I begin to have my eyes on agriculture and investment 3 years ago, I have given opportunities to do my presentation to people. To wrap my up presentation it says that the world population is estimated to reach 10 billion but farm land to produce food (Include to produce feed grains) for such population is decreasing each year. So, it means that some investing people are already going for the position to grab farm land. My presentation say basically like that. And some datas actually shows high return in farm land investment. For example the data below. It indicate the price of farm land and the shift of real estate price in the U.S.

(Top bars shows the shift of farm land price. Bars at down shows the shift of real estate price)

In last 10 years, notorious financial crisis that caused by burst of subprime loan in the U.S occurred and effected to the world. It traced overbrilliant downfall in the shift of real estate price. However, farm land price which as well was taking a part of financial bubble that thought to go down actually kept rising. Money goes to where money is. Because the price goes up, more purchase comes in, then it increases the price more. It not only happening in the U.S but also in South America and Africa and of course in Asia where I am currently in.

The tycoon Jim Rogers once said “Must purchase the farm where has rains and let the farmers who knows the job to work. If you do so, you can double the profit since a price of crop itself are increasing”. This is exactly why we came to Cambodia and find farm land then do agriculture. Well, but as I have been writing in my blog, it just isn’t that easy to do farming in developing country though.

However in these 3 years, I have learned a lot from my experience and feel that I now could latch onto the point where I can produce the result and to do so where I need to push. And I also can see what is fatally lacking as well. While I have been working my project, agriculture sector is getting more attention and more player is coming in. It I say just the best timing for us.

In this agricultural sector that shall be much more interesting from here, I want to set my motto that I will play with the highest technology In the place where the technology is the least developed.

Well, it is not that I’m just playing with my drone all the time. Hehe! But I do not deny that I most of the time enjoy and get excited with my project as kid plays his toy, but I just kinda want to change lame and old image of agriculture. Y’all know what I’m sayin?

– See more at: http://hugs-int.com/kengo/archives/2261#sthash.K2vkIwwV.dpuf

Origin of AGRIBUDDY

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Kengo Kitaura

We only have HUGS cooperate site till recently but as we spin off our company into separate companies (Well, it supposed to be separated long time ago, but it has been delayed big time with very “Cambodia like” problem we have gotten used to already), we build our own page.

https://www.facebook.com/hugsagrico

I am able to speak “Kanglish” (English with Kansai Japanese accent) and comprehend English with varieties of accent and read some easy English novel like Sidney Sheldon type. However, I am not good at writing an English at all. If I write some English sentence, google immediately gives them bunch of red alert lines and they can’t even find candidate word from my spelling. But our business is actually not really for Japanese but for global market. To let the world know what we do, English is the most convenient way thus far. But since I am bad at writing, I let Ms. Sayaka, bilingual staff of HUGS to update English version of this blog and operation of Facebook cooperate page. And this is the picture she posted on Facebook page the other day.

This map literally is the origin of AGRIBUDDY. The map measured with foot of our farm manager and drawn by their bear hands. By the way, each map shows our 100 hectares of land (The size of 2 Tokyo Disney Land). They measured that 2 of 100 hectares of land by walking around with 100 m maximum of tape measure and divide them into plots, then made it into these maps. If I look back now it was almost impossible even to ask them to make it into a map. I really appreciate that they made it for us. But I say that it haven’t change from our Edo era 200 years ago if we had to walk around and measured then make hand drawn map. Of course we were using GPS but no one really have enough skills to utilise the system fully.

Then now, we can have this perfect map like below by just walking around a farm with AGRIBUDDY installed smartphone.

Well, our agriculture system all the sudden across 200 years of time (and space?) and touch the technology of current world! hooray! Then from here we have to be the one to lead the world of technology in agriculture. We have to evolve and give AGRIBUDDY a constant evolution. And we will change agriculture in developing countries by our hands.

Anyway, probably most of companies in Japan already have the last day of working in 2014 and preparing for 2015. Thank you all for your great support in 2014 and I strive on my work to receive your continuous support on 2015.

Let our 2015 to be the best year ever and wish you to stride more than ever!

Best wishes from Cambodia.

Thank you.

Farmlogs has raised $10 million

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Kengo Kitaura

Agriculture operation support service FarmLogs, the company that AGRIBUDDY sees as its benchmark, just succeeded to raise $10 million in round B as they were financed $4 million in round A in last year.

http://m.jp.techcrunch.com/2014/12/18/20141217farmlogs-nabs-10m-series-b-from-sv-angel-sam-altman-and-others/

Well, I don’t know how much shares they divided in this finance but probably around 10%? It means that the valuation of around $100 million, I guess? It is a great achievement anyway. I say this is such a huge wave for us who develop AGRIBUDDY and I am very happy to know that my estimation that this kind of agricultural related service can receive appropriate appraisal from society and can have over $100 million valuation at the 1st round of finance. It proves that what I was thinking was not just a delusion because it is actually happened.

Target market of Farmlogs are farmers in U.S. where agriculture has been “ITed” (or “ITlised” I should say?) slowly and they reaches to the demographic who have stable access to internet and a computer or smartphones. On the other hand our AGRIBUDDY tries to reach to the farmers who owns smartphones and reside in the area with internet lines but never connect to the world of internet and do not even have a google account. (Let’s say they do not even know what’s google).

Everyday, we are showing and introducing our AGRIBUDDY in suburbs of Cambodia. And each time I have this absolute feeling that we are “the first creature that let them, the locals, connect to the world of internet”. Spreading the service we have created to the people who no one ever reached is of course extremely difficult task with long shot but the fruits we can harvest from it must be unbelievably delicious. And it will be proven very soon.

Well, let’s get to work!

They will be a meat eater.

Posted on December 6, 2014 by Kengo Kitaura

In the last article, I wrote “If people in poverty start being rich, they begin to eat meat”. And then I wrote that to produce the meat for those, we need significant amount of feed grain. Means that our meat eating diet is sustained by that extremely inefficient luxury. This time I will go bit deeper about the issue.

In EU, average meat consumption is 70 kg per person. To produce this 70 kg of meat, we need 420 sq meters of grain farm. It is the same size as 1 basketball court.

Every year, people in EU consume a meat which ate one basket ball court of grain feed. And we, an Asians, eat average of 27 kg of meat. It needs 160 sq meters of grain farm to produce grain feed. It means that we use 160 sq meter land for 3.6 billion people to produce a grain feed. How big is that then? It is the size of combining France and Belgium together.

Then as I wrote, if the population of Asian region exploded to 4.5 billion and they become rich enough to eat meat, their average meat consumption shall be around 35 kg. Of course then we need more land to produce feed grains you know. It will be around the size of Japan.

Well, even if we, the people in developed countries, think that “Ok. I ate enough eat meat in my life, so, we should reduce it for our health!”. Since we won’t be able to force that to people in developing countries, we have to increase the produce of feed grain somehow to sustain a demand.

Why I see the potential in developing countries such as Cambodia, it is because they probably can take such demand. The countries has factors like low in harvest yield, cheap labor cost and vast uncultivated land. In this land, I have been trying from cultivation of land to produce of crops and then to logistics and more over, I tried production of feed grain and even production of meat. Let me tell you that I am having straight loss because of tons of unexpected problems and events. Yes I know. Thank you. But now I could feel that I know how I should play with those.

Now I see what I was envision when I come to Cambodia and start agriculture 3 years ago. Cambodian people around me begins to eat meat more and more. Price of pork is increasing, import of meat cow is getting active, foreign organisation that do mass cattle husbandry is stepping into Cambodia. I think increasing an efficiency of agriculture itself is the only way to sustain such dramatical and significant change in food culture.

And in my country Japan where most of feed grain are imported, what is going to happen with this sharp depreciation of yen? They will never be able to eat a meat the price we had been eating…

Building an Ad"venture" company in Cambodia

CEO of AGRIBUDDY, the global platform for distributed farming. My vision is that of millions of empowered, efficient and competitive small farmers

Category Archives: Agriculture