AGRIST Receives Certification for "Development and Supply Implementation Plan" from Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Accelerating System Building for Social Implementation

AGRIST Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Sintomi Town, Koyu District, Miyazaki Prefecture; hereinafter AGRIST), which aims to solve agricultural challenges through food tech, is pleased to announce that it has received certification for its "Development and Supply Implementation Plan" on June 30, Reiwa 8 (2026), based on the "Act on Promotion of Utilization of Smart Agriculture Technology for Improving Agricultural Productivity" (Smart Agriculture Technology Utilization Promotion Act) promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries certifies development and supply implementation plans concerning the development of smart agriculture technologies recognized as particularly necessary in agriculture and the dissemination of their results. Certified businesses can receive support measures such as financial and tax incentives.

With this certification, AGRIST will actively utilize these support measures to promote the development and on-site implementation of further labor-saving and automation technologies for facility cucumber cultivation.

Reference: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries "Development and Supply Implementation Plans Certified Based on the 'Act on Promotion of Utilization of Smart Agriculture Technology for Improving Agricultural Productivity'"

Background and Objectives of This Certification

In Japan's facility horticulture, the aging of producers and the shortage of successors are becoming increasingly serious, making the social implementation of labor-saving technologies an urgent task. The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries certifies development and supply implementation plans concerning the development of smart agriculture technologies recognized as particularly necessary in agriculture and the dissemination of their results. Certified businesses can receive support measures such as financial and tax incentives.

In agricultural fields such as facility horticulture, which face the serious challenges of an aging workforce and labor shortages, AGRIST has contributed to improving productivity through the development and provision of automatic harvesting robots for cucumbers.

This time, to further accelerate labor saving in manual farm work, we applied for a plan to implement new expansion functions for our existing robots and received certification as a "Development and Supply Implementation Plan" from the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Overview of the Development and Supply Implementation Plan and Expected Effects

The plan certified by AGRIST this time focuses on automation technologies for "lower leaf removal (removal of lower leaves)" and "fruit thinning (removal of curved fruits, etc.)" in facility cucumber cultivation (high-wire, vine-lowering cultivation). The aim is to implement these as expansion functions for existing automatic harvesting robots on-site.

In cucumber cultivation, lower leaf removal and fruit thinning are essential tasks for growth management and quality maintenance, but they have traditionally required significant manual labor (300 hours according to our own research). By implementing this technology as an expansion function for existing automatic harvesting robots on-site, we will contribute to reducing the burden on facility horticulture farmers and improving management efficiency. We aim to reduce labor hours by 60% through automation and labor saving in the target tasks (lower leaf removal and fruit thinning).

Comment from Yuki Hata, Representative Director of AGRIST Co., Ltd.

We are honored to have received certification for our Development and Supply Implementation Plan under the Smart Agriculture Technology Utilization Promotion Act. We recognize this certification as validation that the technologies we have been developing are contributing to solving agricultural challenges.

By actively leveraging the preferential measures of this system, we will accelerate our development speed and deliver technologies to farmers more quickly and in a more accessible format. Furthermore, supported by the flexible measures of this system, we will strengthen our partnerships with companies and local governments that are co-creating the future of agriculture, and strive for early social implementation towards the realization of sustainable agriculture.

Future Outlook and Utilization of the System

With the certification of this plan, AGRIST will further strengthen its development and supply systems by utilizing various preferential measures in tax and finance (such as low-interest loans from the Japan Finance Corporation). Furthermore, as this law provides a wide range of support measures, we will consider the future continuous utilization of these systems for business expansion and the social implementation of new smart agriculture technologies, contributing to the realization of sustainable agriculture.

Reference: AGRIST Aims to Reduce Lower Leaf Removal and Fruit Thinning Time for Cucumber Farmers by Up to 60%. Selected for Reiwa 7 (2025) Supplementary Budget "Project for Development and Supply of Smart Agriculture Technology"

AGRIST Co., Ltd.

AGRIST is a startup company that solves agricultural challenges with technology and realizes sustainable agriculture that will continue for the next 100 years. We are deploying smart agriculture nationwide using AI-equipped automatic harvesting robots. Our headquarters are located in Sintomi Town, Miyazaki Prefecture, a region known for its thriving agriculture, which has also been selected as an excellent example of regional revitalization by the government. By 2025, we have received over 27 domestic and international awards, including the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award.

Media Kit: https://agrist.com/media

AGRIST is strengthening its recruitment of engineers for building agricultural support applications, robot development engineers, and farm staff for research and development of cultivation and agricultural technology for next-generation farms. For more details, please visit the recruitment site below.

Recruitment Site: https://agrist.com/recruit

Representatives: Junichi Saito, Yuki Hata Headquarters Location: 1-53-1 Tomitaminami, Sintomi Town, Koyu District, Miyazaki Prefecture Established: October 2019 Business Activities: Smart agriculture utilizing AI and robots