OPTiM CORPORATION announced that the spraying area for its drone agricultural chemical spraying AX service, the Pinpoint Time Spraying Service, is expected to expand to approximately 45,000 ha in FY2026. This would be about 1.4 times the previous fiscal year's area, and applications for FY2027 will also open.
OPTiM CORPORATION announced that the spraying area for its drone agricultural chemical spraying AX service, the Pinpoint Time Spraying Service, is expected to reach approximately 45,000 ha in FY2026. This represents an increase of about 1.4 times from the previous fiscal year. Applications for FY2027 have also opened, and the recruitment of regional sales partners and drone pilots is expected to progress.
As FY2026 results, approximately 136 pest control cooperatives, agricultural cooperatives and partner companies in 26 prefectures and 134 municipalities used the service. As a result, approximately 20,000 growers participated in joint pest control, and approximately 300 drone pilot teams nationwide are expected to complete spraying across approximately 167,200 fields.
Joint pest control is an important system for managing pests and diseases, and damage from rice stink bugs has been reported in recent years due to the effects of high temperatures. As it becomes increasingly difficult to secure personnel to carry out pest control and the transition from unmanned helicopters to drones progresses, the service provides an integrated range of functions for regional pest control, from digital map creation, application management, pilot arrangements and progress management through post-spraying aggregation.
Key enhancements in FY2026 included the introduction of 4 patented technologies to optimise outsourced spraying operations. These enable the determination of assigned fields and spraying routes, the prediction of completion times and adjustment based on actual results, supporting progress monitoring without on-site attendance. The company has also announced the opening of applications for FY2027.