NEC Biglobe Ltd, a major Internet provider in Japan, launched an agribusiness. It will team up with Myfarm Co, a venture firm that runs rental farms for individuals, and start a new business of leasing farms and providing related online services.
"We will create new values with a new business that combines the Internet and the real world," NEC Biglobe President Hisao Iizuka said. "Our goal is to attain sales of one billion yen (approx US$11.1 million) after three years."
The company will start the rental farm service, "Biglobe Farm," in February 2010. It has already started to take advance reservations of a 3,000m2 farm in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. It will be divided into 300 lots, each of which measures 7.5m2.
The monthly rental fee for the lot is ¥3,980 (approx US$44.3, including tax). NEC Biglobe plans to increase the number of rental farms to 60 in three years, expecting 30,000 users.
In the rental farms, resident instructors teach how to sow seeds and plant seedlings. In addition, small cultivators, hoes and so forth are available to use. Users can ask the caretakers of the farms to water plants and remove weeds, so they do not have to visit their farms frequently.
Because Web cameras with 40x optical zoom are set up in the rental farms, users can observe their farms via the Internet using PCs and mobile phones. The angles of the Web cameras can be adjusted by users. They can take pictures of their plants and ask the caretakers to expel insects.
Furthermore, NEC Biglobe will launch a community site for the users of the rental farms so that they can show their farms to other users and share know-how.
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