While driverless cars may now be a question of `when´ rather than `if´, in Japan, their countryside counterpart, the robot tractor, is already on the move. Demographic decline, coupled with urbanisation, means that the average number of farmers fell by 22% between 2005 and 2015, while their average age is currently a venerable 67. According to Agriculture Ministry statistics, 81% of the farming machine-related accidents in 2016 involved a farmer over the age of 65. Consequently, a number of Japanese machinery manufacturers are betting big on the future of agriculture being `smart´ and automated. Iseki and Co. Ltd, one of the archipelago´s largest players in the field,...
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