Daedong to lead national agricultural AI transformation platform

Daedong will build a national agricultural AI transformation platform and develop a revenue-generating business model to sustain it.

The company announced Tuesday that it has been selected as the final operator of the project, which is being pursued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

The initiative is an agricultural AX (AI transformation) model in which a private company leads operations while the government provides fiscal and administrative support. Under the structure, a private firm establishes a special purpose company (SPC) with joint capital contributions from a consortium of government bodies and local authorities, and the SPC takes responsibility for running the project and generating returns.

Daedong heads the consortium, with LG CNS, Daedong Agtech, Daeyoung GS, Art Farm Agricultural Cooperative and Muan-gun among the participants. The public-private SPC is set to be established within the year. Daedong will oversee the overall execution and management of the project, covering AI agricultural machinery, autonomous driving and precision farming.

Daedong Agtech will participate as the primary supplier of core smart-farming technology, providing smart greenhouse-related products and technology — including AI greenhouse construction for the SPC, AI cultivation solutions and autonomous agricultural robots.

The SPC will build and operate three core businesses: an AI and data platform, AI greenhouses and precision farming services. A large-scale AI greenhouse spanning 21.6 hectares will be developed in Muan-gun, applying AI-based environmental and crop-growth management, integrated monitoring and agricultural robot automation. Data generated within the greenhouse will be linked to the AI and data platform for use in crop diagnosis, harvest forecasting and cultivation decision-making.

Daedong Vice Chairman Won Yu-hyeon said the company would "mobilize all of the AI, robotics, advanced agricultural machinery and smart-farming capabilities we have built over the past five years to contribute to the success of the national agricultural AX initiative."