Macnica and Rilata have signed an MOU to implement a cultivation growing medium that reduces CO2 emissions by up to 1/65th – and have begun domestic demonstrations for its use in environmentally controlled agriculture.

Macnica (Headquarters: Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Representative Director and President: Kazumasa Kazumasa Hara, hereinafter referred to as Macnica) announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Lyrata Inc. (Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario, Canada, CEO: Adnan Sharif, hereinafter referred to as Lyrata) to establish a basic framework for promoting the social implementation of "SmartSoil," a bio-based, reusable cultivation medium that reduces environmental impact, in Japan, and for considering future collaborations.
In this initiative, "SmartSoil" will be introduced to Macnica 's open innovation hub in the food and agritech field, "Food Agri Tech Incubation Base (FIB)," and demonstrations will be conducted toward environmentally controlled agriculture that reduces environmental impact and costs and improves production efficiency through a data platform utilizing generation AI and various sensors, while also exploring the possibility of future commercialization and distribution.

Scenes from the MOU signing ceremony at the Canadian Embassy.
From left to right in the photo: Louis-Pierre Hemond, Minister (Commercial) at the Canadian Embassy in Japan.
Adnan Sharif, CEO of Lilata, Inc., and Masanobu Goto, Company President of Macnica TecStar Company

In recent years, against the backdrop of social challenges such as climate change, a declining agricultural workforce, and the need to maintain the food supply base, there has been growing interest in environmentally controlled agriculture, which aims to improve yields by controlling cultivation factors (environment, growth, labor, and energy).
However, in environmentally controlled agriculture, soilless cultivation methods such as hydroponics are widely adopted, and urethane and rock wool are often used as growing media. These materials emit large amounts of CO2 throughout their entire lifecycle.
The Japanese government has set an international commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, aiming for a 46% reduction by 2030 compared to 2013 levels, and a further 60% reduction by 2035. In addition, from 2026, an emissions trading system will be fully implemented for corporations with annual CO2 emissions of 100,000 tons or more, requiring companies to take responsibility for their emissions and manage their emission allowances.
Against this backdrop, there is a strong demand for reducing environmental impact even in environmentally controlled agriculture.

Lilata is an agritech/cleantech company that combines world-class expertise in engineering and plant science to develop "SmartSoil." Based on the idea of industrially replicating "water retention," "structure that physically supports roots," and "chemical surface that interacts with plants," SmartSoil is a reusable growing medium composed of bio-derived materials. Unlike conventional rock wool, coco peat, and urethane, its shape, void structure, water retention, and surface chemistry can be designed, allowing for optimization according to the crop and cultivation system. Compared to conventional growing media, it can reduce CO2 emissions throughout the entire lifecycle by up to 1/65th, and depending on the crop, it can be reused up to 10 times, which is expected to reduce cultivation costs. In the future, Lilata is also developing a high-performance version that will suppress diseases and promote growth by immobilizing naturally derived molecules that stimulate plant immunity on the surface.

Macnica has identified “Creating a Sustainable Global Environment” as one of its materiality issues. To that end, the company established FIB as a hub for collecting the data necessary to develop services for next-generation plant factories, and has been working to implement environmentally controlled agriculture in society through collaborations with other companies and demonstration experiments.

With the signing of this MOU, Macnica will introduce Relata’s “SmartSoil” into FIB and, through a data platform utilizing generative AI and various sensors, verify its growth potential and operational performance by comparing it with conventional growing media.By sharing the technical insights gained from this initiative with Relata and promoting the refinement and societal implementation of this technology, we aim to realize environmentally controlled agriculture that maintains and improves production efficiency while reducing environmental impact and costs.

Through this initiative, Macnica will contribute to the realization of a sustainable food base.

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Macnica, Agritech Business Division
TEL: 045-470-9841
E-mail: mac-agritech@macnica.co.jp

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