Daedong moves beyond farm machinery manufacturing into an ‘agricultural AI platform’ as users top 60,000

[Financial News] Farm machinery manufacturer Daedong is accelerating the expansion of its agricultural services business, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and data. The company’s strategy is to develop its smart agriculture platform, which began with farm machinery management, into a comprehensive platform encompassing farming consultations, precision agriculture and farm work management, maintaining connections with customers even after selling them farm machinery.
 According to industry sources on the 13th, Daedong’s smart agriculture platform, Daedong Connect, has surpassed 60,000 cumulative registered users in South Korea. Its user base doubled in about a year and two months after exceeding 30,000 in July last year. Compared with 34,508 at the end of September last year, the number rose by about 76% in one year.
 The expansion of services available regardless of whether users own farm machinery has contributed to the growth in users. In addition to existing features such as checking the condition of farm machinery and receiving alerts to replace consumables, Daedong offers AI farming consultations, farming log creation, information on regional agricultural subsidies and early warnings of weather-related disasters.
 In particular, the AI service tailored to agriculture, AI Daedong-i, has received more than 160,000 questions to date. Of all questions, 91.7% were classified as open-ended farming consultations on topics such as crop cultivation, sowing, pest and disease control, and fertilizer use. This suggests the service is being used not only for guidance on operating farm machinery but also as a way to obtain information needed for actual farming.
 As the number of users grows, so does the volume of agricultural data being accumulated. Daedong Connect currently has records for 7,705 farm machines, 10,051 farms, and 29,416 entries of information on 80 crop types. Daedong plans to use this data to analyze farm machinery operating patterns and hours, and to improve its breakdown prevention and equipment management services.
 The company is also pursuing expansion into farm work management. Some autonomous tractors currently support features including setting work routes through an app, remote control and checking work results. Going forward, Daedong plans to strengthen its precision agriculture services by linking parcel-level data on soil, crop growth and yields.
 In the medium to long term, Daedong plans to link the data accumulated on Daedong Connect with the Daedong Operation Center. The system would have AI draw up farm work plans, assign tasks to farm machinery and agricultural robots, and then accumulate the results as data. The aim is to expand the scope of services from supporting farmers’ decisions to carrying out actual farm work.
 The key question is whether the growing user base and data can be translated into actual gains in agricultural productivity and business results. A major challenge is expected to be increasing the use of AI services in the field while strengthening the integration of the platform with hardware such as farm machinery and robots.
 Lee Yong-dae, head of Daedong’s Parts and Service Business Division, said, “By connecting our customer base of 60,000 with data accumulated in the field, we will provide customers with more precise information and services they need, and continue to develop into an agricultural AI platform that supports them from farming decisions through to the actual execution of farm work.”
[email protected] Kim Hyun-cheol Reporter