The Japanese subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra ‘Mitsubishi Mahindra Agricultural Machinery’ (MAM), Japan and Kubota, Japan have entered into a business collaboration arrangement.

The partners says the aim is to meet the customer needs and contribute towards sustainable development of Japanese agriculture by expanding mutual OEM supply and utilising products compatible with Kubota's IoT platform ‘KSAS’, which is the basis of smart agriculture.

According to the companies, the Japanese farming population is aging and shrinking, which is shifting to large-sized farming organisations and small-sized part-time farmers. This trend is inspiring increasing customer needs for labour saving, operations and cost efficiency in farm machine and sophisticated technologies such as autonomous and IoT solution.

Kubota and MAM have implemented their own approaches to handle customer issues. Kubota is finding solutions in their large selections of products from small to large size and in promotion of smart agriculture that utilise self-driving agricultural machines and the farming support system KSAS. MAM offers a line-up of products equipped with Mitsubishi’s proprietary technologies and pursuit of craftsmanship spirit or ‘monozukuri spirit’ (Craftsmanship Spirit) under the brand message ‘Long Life’. However, it is critically important to secure resources in each company to sustainably respond to the diversified demands of Japanese customers while expansion of the Japanese agricultural market is not expected.

Kubota and MAM are announcing that they have agreed to start discussion to endeavour to offer products, services and solutions that meet the customer needs through mutually utilising resources to contribute to continuous and stable food production in Japan. The partnership will expand the existing scope of mutual OEM supply placing a main focus on the tractors, rice transplanters and the combine harvesters, including implements and associated equipment.

Rajesh Jejurikar, executive director, Mahindra & Mahindra and chairman, Mitsubishi Mahindra Agricultural Machinery said “We are very pleased with the announcement of the business collaboration for the Japanese market which will include a broad range of collaborative efforts including but not limited to expanding the mutual OEM supply arrangements, joint utilisation of IoT and other sophisticated technology solutions, and exploring opportunities for collaborating in product development for Japan”.