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【2021 Application Example】 Fongyu Uses AI Knowledge-based Fish Farming to Effectively Increase Aquatic Production by 10%

Fisheries is an important industry in an island economy. However, the fish farming industry has faced severe challenges in recent years, including climate change, labor shortage, and rising costs. In particular, nearly 110,000 workers in agriculture will retire due to old age over the next 10 years. For this reason, the need for aquaculture to move towards smart farming is becoming increasingly urgent.

Founded in 2014, Fongyu Corp. Ltd. has developed a unique eco-friendly farming model based on its own fish farming. It uses AI knowledge-based fish farming to effectively increase aquatic product production by 10%, and reduced labor cost by 15%.

The word "Fongyu" has a profound meaning. "Fong" represents good mountains and "Yu" represents good water, and is the hope that companies will allow Taiwan to always have good mountains and good water.It is also a homophone for "having a full figure," expressing the hope that products will give consumers a full and healthy body and mind. The founder of the company, Liu Chien-Shen, has been through the difficult entrepreneurial journey of becoming an apprentice in fish farming, raising funds, renting fish farms, establishing a fish farming company, building a brand, and expanding sales.

Labor shortage and aging workers are hidden worries in the fish farming industry

Currently, fish farms in Taiwan are still mainly traditional fish farms, and farming techniques are still passed down through word-of-mouth. In addition, the labor shortage and average age of workers exceeding 60 years old has made it impossible to effectively stably improve productivity and yield. This farming method makes it difficult to prevent and control diseases, and greatly increases the possibility of excessive use of drugs, environmental pollution, and water quality and ecological damage, creating a vicious cycle that lowers the quality of fish farming.

In addition, 65.1% of workers in Taiwan's fish farming industry are inadequately skilled. With limited support from IoT sensors, traditional fish farmers still mainly rely on their own experience and knowledge for water quality management, feeding, and disease detection. Fish farming management relies heavily on the ability of individual fishermen. Once experienced workers retire, the industry will not only face the issue of succession, but also the difficult of stably supplying a certain amount of harvest that meets quality standards. This may cause a dilemma for the entire industry from fish farming to sales.

In order to improve the pain point of inability to pass on experience in fish farming, and at the same time create a "digital" foundation for fish farming, the top priority must be to collect farming behavior data and develop AI services as an important starting point.

Fishery digital twin technology helps fishermen transition to smart farming

With the assistance of the Institute for Information Technology (III), Fongyu implemented the "fishery digital twin" technology to dynamically adjust the farming schedule. In other words, the fish farming schedule is adjusted according to the species, habits, and variables of the fish. The use of AI in fish farming not only effectively increase aquatic production by 10%, but also reduced labor cost by 15%.

In terms of specific methods, we first digitalized the fish ponds, feed, and decision-making behavior for each species, such as sea bass and Taiwan tilapia, and recorded the seasonal temperature changes from releasing seedlings to harvesting, all of which were digitalized, gradually recording the experience and methods of experienced workers into a rich database. Based on the recorded data, we analyzed the compound variables to find the best farming behavior and generate a dynamic farming schedule.

Recording each pond's farming master's data experience.

▲ The records for each pool provide data on workers' experience.

However, fish farming behavior generally relies on rules of thumb. Even experienced fish farmers cannot ensure that they will find the best solution. Therefore, new methods are proposed to solve this issue: That is, "to determine the best fish farming behavior by predicting the interaction with water quality and past data on feeding, and evaluating fish farming behavior based on water quality and fish farming," and provide fishermen with the most intuitive recommendations through daily schedules. To continue optimizing the dynamic fish farming calendar on a rolling basis, iterations of the model will be developed through the three-step cycle:

(1) Input the current fish farming calendar into the model;

(2) The model predicts the future environment;

(3) Shortcomings of the fish farming calendar are corrected based on the future environment to obtain a new version of the fish farming calendar.

In the process, the experience of aquaculture experts is used to establish the causal relationship between fish farming behavior and the environment. The establishment of a dynamic fish farming process and technology-based fish farming recommendation services provide a traceable and detailed fish farming process. It is one of the few technologies that can digitalize fish farming. Fishermen can quickly and easily record their daily behaviors to build knowledge without taking up too much time, but in the long run it can reduce labor cost by 15% and increase output and revenue by an average of 10%.

Smart fish farming has achieved outstanding results, reducing labor cost by 15% and increasing output by 10%

At the same time, the fish farming calendar can also be extended to different aquatic species, such as white shrimp, milkfish, clams, and Taiwan tilapia, to produce fish farming schedules for ponds with different specifications, and the harvested aquatic species can be traced according to different specifications, establishing vertically integrated services for safe food products. Fongyu's main products are divided into two categories. One is aquaculture modules, including fry, feed, materials and probiotics, production planning and processes, and monitoring, which can be sold separately or exported as modules.

Summit Fisheries' high-quality marine products consistently win awards. (Image: Summit Fisheries official website)

▲The high-quality aquatic products produced by Fongyu have repeatedly won awards. (Figure: Fongyu’s official website)

The other category is high-quality aquatic products, including seabass fillets, seabass balls, oil-free seabass balls, seabass dumplings, and seabass soup. The products have won various awards, including the top ten souvenirs in Pingtung in 2017, "Barramundi Fillet" won the 2017 Eatender of the Council of Agriculture (COA), "Oil-Free Barramundi Fillet" won the 2018 Eatender Gold Food Award of the COA, and "Dumplings of Barramundi" and "Barramundi Broth" won the 2019 Eatender of the COA. The consecutive awards represent that the "quality" of Fongyu’s aquatic products can be seen and eaten with peace of mind.

In addition, Fongyu has exclusive fingerlings that meet international needs, such as: Pure seawater cultured tilapia fingerlings and seawater Taiwan tilapia fingerlings from selective breeding (FY-01) are items that aquaculture companies in many countries are looking forward to. The company also has aquaculture modules, disease monitoring tools, and feeding materials designed in accordance with the environment, in order to provide customers with more stable income.

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【解決方案】佐翼科技無人機導入高爾夫球場域 可節省一半人力
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AI Assists the Red Cross for Smarter Emergency Response

More Preparation Less Loss The Taiwan Food Bank Association, a non-profit organization, collects donations daily from wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers, and even kind-hearted individuals across Taiwan They also rescue consumable materials that are about to be discarded, properly allocate and deliver to households in need, aiding local underprivileged populations When natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, mudslides, typhoons, floods, and droughts occur in Taiwan, the food bank's resources can be immediately deployed for disaster relief This field verification unit is the Nantou County Red Cross AssociationOne of the food bank locations, hereinafter referred to as the Nantou Red CrossIs responsible for tasks like pre-disaster supplies preparation and disaster relief material distribution, helping the government bear the responsibility of disaster relief and aid In Taiwan, various natural disasters have characteristics of different duration and spatial coverage, wide or narrow With the normalization of extreme weather, the scale and number of disasters are gradually increasing and becoming harder to predict The required amount and type of materials differ by disaster, and they must address the lifestyles of the affected areas, rescue needs, traffic conditions, geographical restrictions, and other factors for varied material allocation, facing numerous challenges Typhoon Kanu severely damaged transportation in Nantou mountain areas Nantou County Red Cross planned the mountainous route Puli gt Fazhi Elementary School gt Qin'ai Village gt Aowanda to deliver supplies Disasters happen repeatedly We need to be prepared at all times Effective disaster preparedness can mitigate the impact, including swift response to material needs in affected areas, aid distribution, and even psychological support, providing added security for life and property of those in disaster zones Lack of Timeliness in Disaster Information To improve the living conditions and address 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expiration dates, and distribution,When a disaster occurs, there is a chance that 'preparedness' supplies have expired and cannot become 'disaster relief' supplies It’s also possible that both conditions mentioned above occur simultaneously, leading to a need for more time to reassign 'preparedness' supplies into usable 'disaster relief' materials On the other hand, upon receiving information about shortages in disaster areas, the supplies donated by the public often grossly differ from the actual needs of the disaster zone, leading to an excess of supplies The Process of Material Operations Before and After a Natural Disaster AIAnticipating Natural Disasters Reinforcing the Accuracy of Preparedness Material Dispatch Application API Technology connects to compute the state of the climate, the intensity of disaster rescues, prioritizing the main tasks of the Nantou Red Cross and the needed areas of search and rescue Coordinated with the existing heavy rain and typhoon simulation disaster training of the Nantou Red Cross, a 'Natural Disaster Emergency Preparedness Material Dispatch and Supplement Decision System' is establishedreferred to as the Emergency Preparedness Material System。 In material management, inventory data along with immediate supply data are entered into the Emergency Preparedness Material System for comparison and analysis, helping the Nantou Red Cross quickly recognize materials like cookiesdry food, beverages, frozen food, toilet paper, etc, and determining whether they should be 'preparedness' materials or regularly distributed materials Adding to this, information forecasting understands the potential disaster conditions in remote areas, facilitating food delivery, addressing both front-end food wastage and backend practical needs When a natural disaster occurs, it enables faster response and decision-making, completing material deployment, hence increasing the speed of material operation transition20。 AI Emergency Preparedness Material 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