After streamlining the apparatus, applying technology is a mandatory solution.

HANOI As the number of staff decreases due to streamlining and the management area becomes larger, applying technology becomes a mandatory solution for local livestock and veterinary staff.

At the consultation workshop on the application of information technology in livestock management and animal disease surveillance, held on March 20th in Hanoi and organized by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in collaboration with the Veterinary Institute (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment), representatives from Lao Cai and Hoa Binh provinces shared very frankly and openly about their local digital transformation needs.

Livestock farming in mountainous areas is often small-scale and scattered, making it difficult for local veterinary officers to reach them. Photo: HĐ.

Ms. Cao Thi Hoa Binh, Head of the Department of Livestock and Plant Protection of Lao Cai province, expressed interest in the potential for expanding the application of information technology in local management. She shared that livestock farmers in mountainous areas are often small-scale and scattered, making it difficult for local veterinary officers to reach them.

According to Ms. Binh, with the policy of reducing the number of districts and merging communes, Lao Cai province plans to streamline from 200 communes to about 20. This is a great opportunity for the locality to allocate resources and standardize the grassroots veterinary staff. Ms. Binh also mentioned Resolution 57/NQ-TW dated December 22, 2024, of the Politburo , which identifies science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation as important breakthroughs.

"As the system becomes more streamlined, the number of staff decreases while the scope of management expands, so applying technology platforms is the only solution to ensure the organizational and management efficiency of the agricultural sector," Ms. Binh affirmed.

Ms. Cao Thi Hoa Binh, Head of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Plant Protection of Lao Cai province, participated in the consultation at the conference. Photo: Quynh Chi.

Ms. Binh argued that while the FarmVetCare application supports animal disease monitoring at the farm and commune levels, the Vietnam Animal Disease Information System (VAHIS) serves management from the central to local levels.

Therefore, this Head of the Sub-Department proposed: "Based on these two foundations, we hope that managers and scientists will discuss and develop a comprehensive system, extending from the central level to the grassroots."

Ms. Binh pledged that Lao Cai is ready to cooperate in implementing technological solutions. However, for the system to operate effectively, training, equipment upgrades, and improved information infrastructure are necessary to ensure synchronized operation throughout the province.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan, Deputy Head of the Department of Livestock and Veterinary Medicine of Hoa Binh province, emphasized that any application needs to meet the practical needs of farmers to the fullest extent, be simple, easy to use, and easy to implement.

Agreeing with the representative from Lao Cai, Mr. Tuan analyzed: At the grassroots level, even with changes in the management model, an effective disease surveillance system is still needed. However, the number of veterinary officers and doctors in many localities is still very limited.

Accordingly, representatives from Hoa Binh proposed that digital platforms update lists of veterinarians by locality, so that livestock farmers can easily contact them, ask questions, and receive support when needed.

The next step of the ICT4Health project is to transfer all application data to Vietnam. Photo: KC.

"When communes are merged, the responsibilities of veterinary officers will become increasingly heavy. In this context, the application of information technology will help livestock farmers access resources more quickly," he said.

At the same time, veterinary staffing needs to be established down to the commune level, ensuring that this team is not only highly skilled professionally but also capable of accurate diagnosis. A highly skilled veterinary team will be trusted as a crucial link in the livestock data system. The collected disease data will also be more accurate, "clean," and of higher quality.

Lao Cai and Hoa Binh are two pilot localities for the project “Improving human health through sustainable agricultural value chains in the context of human-animal-environment linkages using information and communication technology in Vietnam” (ICT4Health).

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, a scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the ICT4Health project has organized training on the FarmVetCare application for 35 veterinarians and 266 livestock farmers in two provinces. In total, 337 accounts have been registered on the platform, initially helping to improve remote veterinary monitoring and support.

According to ILRI representatives, the next step of the project is to transfer all application data to Vietnam, while ensuring the platform operates more effectively within the veterinary management and disease surveillance system.