Digital transformation to professionalize the rice industry

Smart rice fields

In recent times, Hanoi has supported cooperatives in applying digital technology to rice production and achieved positive results. For example, at the Director of Dong Phu Organic Agriculture Cooperative (Chuong My District), technology is applied from production to branding and consumption of agricultural products.

Drone spraying pesticides on rice fields in Thuy Lam commune (Dong Anh district). Photo: Ngoc Anh

Director of Dong Phu Organic Agricultural Cooperative Trinh Thi Nguyet shared: with a scale of 40 hectares of organic rice cultivation, to make the production process transparent, the cooperative has installed cameras right in the fields, updated the production process with electronic diary books... This helps state management agencies and consumers easily monitor the organic rice production chain from seeding, care, harvesting, preliminary processing, processing and labeling products on the market.

Along with that, the cooperative uses drones, electric pumps, plows, tillers, combine harvesters and applies smart sensor systems in the fields to control via smartphones. This has helped the unit to clearly understand the situation, water quality, pest situation, weather changes and proactively come up with timely treatment plans.

In An Giang, promoting digital applications in production, the whole province now has about 300 drones serving rice production, minimizing traditional methods. The application of technology such as drones not only helps reduce the amount of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, but also opens up many favorable directions for high-tech agricultural development. Accordingly, the amount of seeds sown has decreased from 100 - 200 kg/ha to 80 - 100 kg/ha.

The leader of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of An Giang said that the province strives to have 50-70% of the process automated through smart applications, and 70-80% of the high-quality rice area assigned with growing area codes. Recently, An Giang signed a cooperation agreement with a business to implement the project "Regional rice production and distribution center in An Giang province" with smart automatic production processes.

Rice production and distribution in An Giang province. Illustrative photo

Regarding the application of digital technology in rice production, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Rice Industry Association Le Thanh Tung shared that after more than 1 year of implementing the Project on sustainable development of 1 million hectares of high-quality and low-emission rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta, it has brought about high efficiency such as: reducing the amount of fertilizers and pesticides, increasing rice output, reducing emissions, and the quality of rice produced from the model has been positively improved.

Attracting businesses to invest in technology

Besides the advantages, rice production currently has some difficulties in terms of linkage, fragmented production, dependence on intermediaries, etc. In fact, farmers have a great need to apply digital transformation and green transformation technology while this is a new field of agriculture. Another difficulty is that the capacity of farmers, cooperatives, and even management staff is limited, so training, education, and improving knowledge of applying digital transformation plays a decisive role.

 

The Government's project "Sustainable development of one million hectares of high-quality, low-emission specialized rice associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta by 2030" aims to professionalize the rice industry; form a team of professional farmers, update knowledge and skills for farmers; improve management capacity and cooperation ability of agricultural cooperatives... Based on the successful pilot, this model will be expanded nationwide with the goal of making "Green development, emission reduction, high quality" a brand of Vietnamese rice.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Tran Thanh Nam

Nguyen Thanh Mong, Vietnam Market Development Director of Sorimachi Vietnam Company, said that to successfully apply digital technology to rice production and expand it to other localities, Vietnam needs to provide production diary solutions and support production along the value chain. When all data is synchronized, determining the area, harvest time, output, and expected use of fertilizers and pesticides will be transparent.

According to Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Environment Nguyen Manh Phuong, the city currently maintains 200 Japonica rice production areas, commercial rice in the direction of safety, VietGAP, organic meeting export standards, scale 11,000ha, value 15 - 17 million VND/ha/year and 3 - 5 herbal rice areas...

Therefore, the application of digital technology plays a very important role in controlling the entire production process. The Department regularly organizes training, seminars, and talks on digital transformation in each production field, combined with specific support and guidance for farmers; creating conditions for farmers to access, exploit, and effectively use new technology equipment such as: drones, automatic watering systems, etc.

To effectively implement the Project on sustainable development of 1 million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta by 2023, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Tran Thanh Nam said that localities need to have solutions to attract businesses to invest in order to optimize technology for the entire rice industry chain.

On the other hand, the units of the Ministry need to strengthen cooperation, bring scientific and technological advances from abroad to implement in Vietnam to create breakthroughs in agriculture towards international standards and achieve the desired results.

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/chuyen-doi-so-de-chuyen-nghiep-hoa-nganh-hang-lua-gao.html