Era of AI Plowing Fields and Picking Strawberries... Daedong "Agricultural AI Strategy Needed"

[Financial News] "We will make agriculture easier and smarter."
Choi Jun-gi, CEO of Daedong AI Lab, explained the development direction of the three major agricultural AI technologies at the 'Three Major Agricultural AI Technology Presentation Media Briefing' held at Daedong's Seoul office in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 17th. Daedong introduced the future agricultural technology strategy centered on △Move AI △Act AI △Grow AI, which are being developed by its subsidiary Daedong AI Lab.
Move AI is a vision-based autonomous driving technology that overcomes the limitations of the Global Positioning System (GPS). It is designed to allow tractors or robots to determine the optimal path and drive even in irregular farmland. For this, the largest agricultural data in Korea was built based on over 500,000 orchard and field photos and 3 million driving videos.
CEO Choi explained, "In agricultural work where accuracy is crucial, it is essential to secure a driving precision of about 7cm, which significantly reduces errors compared to general autonomous driving." This technology is scheduled to be applied first to the flagship tractor with Level 4 autonomous driving, which is set to be released in the first half of 2026, and plans to expand to transport robots, etc. Additionally, it plans to continuously enhance AI performance by introducing a machine learning operations automation system (MLOps).

Act AI is a physical AI technology that automates repetitive manual tasks such as plowing, sowing, pest control, and harvesting. Daedong is currently developing an autonomous plowing model capable of soil analysis and real-time work quality evaluation. The goal is to reduce work time by 30% and fuel consumption by 15% compared to existing methods.
CEO Choi stated, "AI performs simple repetitive tasks like rotavator work better," adding, "We are utilizing data collected from the perspective of field workers for learning." So far, over 3,100 work data have been collected, and the actions and judgments of skilled workers are being implanted into AI. Furthermore, a multifunctional robot based on imitation learning, unveiled at 'CES 2025', is being advanced to perform delicate tasks such as strawberry and tomato harvesting and leaf removal.
Grow AI is a solution that predicts crop growth and optimizes the timing of fertilization, pest control, and harvesting based on data collected from drones, satellites, and smart agricultural machinery. Daedong has launched the first precision agriculture commercial service in Korea targeting rice and is also developing strawberry growth prediction AI in the greenhouse sector.
The greenhouse environment prediction model analyzes environmental changes in real-time based on data such as temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration, and illuminance, and proposes response strategies. In the future, Daedong plans to enhance its agricultural chatbot 'AI Daedongi' into an agentic AI to support anyone in easily consulting on crop cultivation strategies.
Daedong plans to apply its precision agriculture solution to Saemangeum in the second half of the year in line with the government's 'Agricultural Robot Demonstration Project' and Saemangeum Agricultural Life Complex policy. 
Nah Young-jung, Head of Daedong P&BIZ Development Division, said, "Korea is still in a situation where there is no AI specialized in the agricultural sector, and I think food security is as important as defense or manufacturing security," adding, "The promotion of agriculture should be included in the sovereign AI strategy and pursued as a national project."

jimnn@fnnews.com Shin Ji-min, Reporter