NTT has invested in Oishii Farm’s Series B and will proceed with the development of a plant factory in collaboration with the company. Aiming to realize a recycling-oriented society and a sustainable primary industry, NTT is aiming to commercialize services that produce high value-added fruits and vegetables both domestically and overseas without relying on the environment.

Oishii Farm is headquartered in New Jersey, USA, and promotes plant factories that utilize the traditional Japanese technique of greenhouse horticulture. By fusing nature and technology, they recreate elements such as rain, air, heat, light, and nutrition in optimal conditions for plants, providing consumers with seasonal strawberries throughout the year.

Plant factories are cultivated in an environment that is completely independent of the external climate, so they have the advantage of being able to produce agricultural products in any region, being unaffected by the seasons, and stabilizing production volume and quality. Another major feature is that not only are they not exposed to external weather risks, but plant factories can maintain a constant growing environment, making it possible to optimize the environment using AI.

In order to take advantage of these benefits and characteristics and efficiently produce agricultural products that are more environmentally friendly and have high added value, NTT Group will conduct joint research with Oishii Farm to upgrade plant factories.

Specifically, they will aim to solve problems in plant factories by utilizing communication networks, data centers, and IOWN (APN, optoelectronic integrated devices). In addition, we will work with NTT Agri Technology, an NTT Group company specializing in agriculture, to solve various problems related to pest control in plant factories using optical technology.