Young engineer with dream of 'flying high' with Vietnamese agriculture

Mr. Nguyen Van Thien Vu went directly to the scene to monitor the activities of the drones.

With the desire to create sustainable livelihoods for farmers, young engineer Nguyen Van Thien Vu and his colleagues have created drones to support farmers in effective farming, creating a turning point in agriculture.

Innovative pesticide spraying aircraft

Having a passion for manufacturing technology, Nguyen Van Thien Vu (born in 1991) began to cherish the dream of building airplanes and researching and doing his graduation project in this field when he was a student majoring in Electricity and Electronics at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology.

After graduating, Thien Vu continued to research and develop drones in many different fields. He and his colleagues focused on research on communications, then developed a number of other applications of drones in the military and in life.

In 2015, Thien Vu and his colleagues started to produce drones for the agricultural sector. But at that time, drones were a strange concept not only to farmers but also to his team.

With the desire to grasp the farming situation of farmers, Mr. Vu went to all the fields to learn about agricultural production. He said that one of the reasons leading to the situation of "good harvest, low price" is that the farming method of farmers is still manual, not applying advanced, modern technology.

Therefore, the application of drone technology to spray pesticides in the farming process is extremely necessary.

However, the journey to bring drone technology to the field is a difficult story. Mr. Vu said that using drones to spray pesticides is a new concept, not accepted by farmers.

Many farmers are skeptical because the technology is so different from the way they have always farmed. Others say it is difficult for agricultural drones to reach the underside of leaves, where many pests like to hide and lay eggs.

The challenge for Thien Vu is to simultaneously bring new technology to the people, but at the same time convince and prove to them that it is time to change old farming habits.

To dispel farmers’ concerns and questions, Mr. Vu offered to conduct a free trial spraying on a field in Dong Thap province. He used manual technology on one side and high technology on the other side for comparison.

After one crop, farmers have seen clear results. Most large-scale agricultural farmers have responded to this technology.

According to Mr. Vu, the use of drone technology in agriculture has replaced human labor, helping agricultural production to be more productive and efficient.

This is also a solution to reduce environmental pollution in manual agricultural production. “When spraying pesticides by hand, the amount of water that falls will be uneven, seeping down and polluting the soil, leading to agricultural products containing pesticide residues. When spraying by plane with mist, the leaves will absorb well, receive just enough pesticides, so they will grow well,” Mr. Vu analyzed.

After that successful test, Mr. Vu and his colleagues brought drones to large agricultural areas in the Mekong Delta region, building training centers, sales, services and testing facilities.

To date, drone products have reached more than 30,000 farming households in more than 50 provinces and cities nationwide.

Promoting the development of Vietnamese agricultural products

Thien Vu also wants to contribute to putting Vietnamese agricultural products on the world map. He said that recently, Vietnamese agricultural products are being highly appreciated in the international market, with the application of new technology to expand cultivation...

Mr. Nguyen Van Thien Vu and his colleagues personally checked the equipment before putting it into use.

This also promotes the development of clean and organic Vietnamese agricultural products so that Vietnamese agricultural products can have a name on the world map. On the other hand, agricultural products with stable output will contribute to creating sustainable livelihoods for people.

Not stopping there, he also coordinated with the Central Youth Union to launch the agricultural product platform "AgriVerse Virtual Universe."

Sharing about this project, Mr. Vu said that he always worried about the startup products of rural youth, although valuable, always have difficulty in output. Meanwhile, many people who need to use clean agricultural products have difficulty accessing the supply and cannot control the quality.

According to Mr. Vu, this is considered a new direction for digitalizing Vietnamese agriculture, while promoting startups among young people. It is expected that by 2025, there will be 400 AgriVerse virtual agricultural product platforms deployed across the country.

Currently, these agricultural product floors have been deployed in 13 provinces and cities including Son La, Tuyen Quang, Ha Nam, Thai Binh, Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Thua Thien Hue, Quang Ngai, Gia Lai, Dak Nong, Dak Lak, Dong Thap and Long An.

With the results achieved, Thien Vu is one of 10 people to receive the Outstanding Young Vietnamese Face Award 2022 in the field of Business - Startup of the Central Youth Union. Previously, he won the Outstanding Entrepreneur Award 2022./.