Have a plan to create breakthroughs in science and technology in each field, each year.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Phung Duc Tien affirmed that science and technology have brought many benefits to the agricultural and environmental sectors. Photo: Tung Dinh.

Great contributions of science and technology

Speaking to the press, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Phung Duc Tien affirmed that in agriculture, science and technology (S&T) plays a very important role. According to him, the seed program alone has helped the rice industry to have 85% new varieties and 89% high-quality rice. The effectiveness of high-quality varieties has been demonstrated in the recent period when rice prices decreased but high-quality rice was maintained and was less affected.

In addition, when rice prices increased again in the Mekong Delta region, high-quality rice increased by 100 - 150 VND/kg, while lower-quality rice only increased by 50 - 100 VND/kg. This confirms the role of applying science and technology in agricultural production. The issue of varieties in agriculture alone helps increase value by about 38%, while on average, the added value contributed by science and technology is about 30%.

The application of scientific and technological advances in farming and water-saving irrigation has also helped producers reduce costs by 30-50%. New generation plant varieties have helped increase productivity by 10-15%, while costs have also decreased by 20-30%.

This shows that in the agricultural sector, science and technology have been widely applied to all subjects, in addition to cultivation and animal husbandry, there are also irrigation and natural disaster prevention.

Specifically, we have had very typical projects such as Ninh Quoi boat lock sluice, Cai Lon - Cai Be irrigation sluice, which when put into operation have brought great efficiency. In the forestry sector, we have a wood raw material output of 33 million tons as it is now thanks to the application of science and technology.

Experimental research on drought- and salinity-resistant rice varieties. Photo: Tung Dinh.

Currently, in addition to research work of institutes and schools, businesses are also receiving science and technology from other countries very quickly. Therefore, Vietnam's agricultural sector can catch up quickly and soon meet the requirements of regional and international markets.

With digital transformation, this is an irreversible general trend in the context that all issues must be transparent and Vietnam has integrated with more than 200 countries and territories in the world in terms of import and export. There is no other way but to digitally transform.

In that spirit, up to now, digital transformation has been widely applied in many fields. For example, resource management, environmental monitoring of land or data management of plant health, helping to diagnose diseases through images.

In forecasting, when applying digital transformation, warnings and recommendations are given very accurately. Specifically, the problem of saline intrusion in 2024, only more than 100,000 hectares were affected thanks to the application of science and technology, digital transformation in forecasting by the Southern Institute of Water Resources, combined with additional data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to make the results more accurate.

With weather, the application of the Internet of Things, blockchain or artificial intelligence has helped provide forecast information to help prevent and restore the major impacts of natural disasters.

Besides, digital transformation also plays an important role in the process of building e-commerce platforms for agricultural products or the process of building growing area codes, tracing the origin of products for export...

The above information shows that the application of science and technology and digital transformation in the fields of agriculture and environment has been deployed relatively synchronously and brought about relatively clear results.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment will develop an action plan to implement Resolution 57-NQ/TW for each sector and each year. Photo: Tung Dinh.

More than 10 bottlenecks need to be removed

Currently, we have Resolution 57-NQ/TW of the Politburo on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation, Resolution No. 193/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly on piloting a number of special mechanisms and policies to create breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation, and Resolution 03/NQ-CP of the Government on the Government's Action Program to implement Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW of the Politburo.

According to Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien, this is a new foundation to remove existing bottlenecks in the application of science and technology, specifically and most notably issues related to policy mechanisms and legal documents.

As for agriculture and environment, we also have sectoral plans and development strategies for each field. Thereby, the implementation of science and technology applications has been clearly implemented, bringing efficiency to each field.

For example, for more than 15,800 OCOP products nationwide today, tracing the origin and completing the process will turn this into a great resource when participating in export.

Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has held working sessions to review, evaluate, and propose a plan to implement Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW of the Politburo as well as Resolution No. 193/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly, and Resolution 03/NQ-CP of the Government.

After the results are available, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment will propose specific solutions for each field and develop specific plans for each year based on the overall master plan associated with the approved science and technology development strategy.

Although there are certain premises, there are still bottlenecks that need to be removed in the application of science and technology in the agricultural and environmental sectors. Photo: Tung Dinh.

Although there are certain foundations and premises, it must be affirmed that there are still many problems that need to be solved. It can be calculated that in agriculture and the environment today there are more than 10 bottlenecks that need to be solved.

But first, to meet the requirements of science and technology application and digital transformation, we need to build a large enough database system. It can be a shared database, then a specialized database. These are mandatory requirements and we must review, supplement, and update with the motto "correct, sufficient, alive, clean".

In addition, it is also necessary to pay attention to the problem of the path and accompanying software, which must be suitable to be able to operate smoothly and handle available data. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the assurance of network security, with the available infrastructure that needs to be regularly maintained and repaired to be able to handle the requirements posed by reality.

"It can be said that digital transformation will remove obstacles and promote the potential and advantages in organizing the production of goods in the agricultural and environmental sectors. When the issue of digital transformation is resolved comprehensively, the sector's goals assigned by the Government and the Prime Minister in 2025 and the following years can be completely achieved," Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien emphasized.

Source: https://nongnghiep.vn/co-ke-hoach-tao-dot-pha-ve-khoa-hoc-cong-nghe-tung-linh-vuc-tung-nam-d744702.html