Nghe An Fisheries before the requirement of digital transformation

Necessity

Having the opportunity to follow the inspection teams and urge the implementation of the targets of the Fisheries sector in Nghe An, we realized that, compared to other sectors, the fisheries sector has the characteristic of starting from a rather low and backward technical infrastructure. Therefore, it is requireddigital transformationFor this sector, it is almost a revolution and the goal is too big. However, stemming from the requirement to manage exploitation and fishing activities according to the provisions of the Fisheries Law and regulations on combating illegal fishing (IUU), the fishing industry, whether it wants it or not, must adapt to develop.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien and a delegation from the Directorate of Fisheries during an inspection of IUU fishing records at Lach Con fishing port, Quynh Phuong. Photo: Nguyen Hai

According to regulations, offshore fishing vessels with a hull length of 15m or more, in addition to having to register and inspect once a year, must also complete the declaration procedure according to the logbook each time they enter or leave the port or wharf. Currently, due to the outdated process, the procedures for entering and leaving the wharf are being done manually. Accordingly, the ship owners bring the fishing logbook and crew list to the estuary control station to present to the authorities, declare the entry logbook for the officers to manually record in the monitoring book...

During the recent inspection by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's working group on combating IUU fishing in Nghe An, while the inspection team, thanks to the national monitoring system, had a fairly good grasp of the date, time, and license plate number of the violating vessel disconnecting, the document storage system of the Port Management Board took a long time to find out but the updates were not complete. Therefore, at the working session, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien suggested that the province conduct a survey to have a plan to invest in upgrading infrastructure software, connecting the port's database with the national system to easily manage, monitor and facilitate procedures for fishermen every time they enter and exit the port. If the budget is too large, the Provincial People's Committee proposed that the Ministry consider supporting the budget...

Offshore fishing boats anchored at Lach Con fishing port, Quynh Phuong, Hoang Mai town. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Similarly, in the field of aquaculture, to minimize risks, recently, many breeding facilities in our province have invested in quite modern infrastructure, each breeding pond is equipped with a water filtration and treatment system, temperature sensors for each pond and tank connected to a common control center... Thanks to that, whenever the temperature in the pond, lagoon or water environment changes abnormally, the monitoring and sensing equipment system reports to the phone, so the model owner or remote manager can also handle it.

For farming households, currently in some regions and large pond owners, when buying seeds, food, or medicine, they choose facilities with clear origins. After buying seeds, they must accompany the pond owner for guidance. However, because most pond infrastructure, especially shrimp farming, has not been properly invested, farmers are "amateurs" so they have the mentality of wanting to buy cheap seeds of unknown origin. Unfortunately, many shrimp and clam pond owners, when given a promotion by the seed supplier, stock too densely, leading to "more harm than good" as the density is too high and causes pollution and disease.

For effective digital transformation

At the seminar organized by the Provincial Agricultural Extension Center in coordination with the Nghe An Fisheries Sub-Department on the topic of digital transformation in the field of aquaculture, many good models and practices were raised and suggested for implementation. Specifically, in addition to some practical experiences in applying smart technology to monitor pond temperature at some aquaculture model owners in Nghe An, local aquaculture farmers have had access to software and equipment applying smart technology to water treatment and monitoring the farming process introduced by large enterprises and corporations in the South.

According to Mr. Tran Trung Thanh - Head of Training Department, Provincial Agricultural Extension Center, the workshop is just the beginning but has opened up the way to shape and plan digital transformation in the aquaculture sector of the province in the near future.

Checking fishing procedures on fishermen's fishing boats, most of the certificates are on paper, which is quite inconvenient for fishermen at sea. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Meanwhile, Mr. Cao Xuan Tuan - Deputy Director of the Provincial Agricultural Extension Center shared: The models and equipment introduced at the workshop have proven that localities are very proactive in digital transformation. However, it is only the application of smart technology platforms to aquaculture, which is one of the initial contents and stages of digital transformation. True digital transformation in the aquaculture sector requires synchronous investment, in which, from infrastructure to equipment, software, and management apparatus must change. There, facilities, from food production, medicine to breeds, must be standardized into QR codes and then integrated into a common database so that, depending on the level, managers, farmers and customers can access to check and monitor; when an incident occurs, can they check themselves to see if they are raising and releasing fish according to the correct process? What are the basic and initial handling methods before asking experts?

Shrimp farming model in net house in Dien Trung, Dien Chau. Photo: Mai Giang

An expert from the Aquaculture Research Institute II said: True digital transformation in aquaculture requires synchronous investment, from the feed stage, seed supply must be standardized, accordingly, each batch and seed tank is coded according to each tank, the time from when the seed is released to the factory, along with the size, size of seed selection...

Similarly, feed production facilities must also be listed and made public in the system so that farmers only need to scan the QR code to get traceability information. Information about farming in tanks, ponds, and lagoons is also included in the data so that customers, especially importers, can trace back to know where the product was raised and for what period of time, which will give them more peace of mind.

Farmers in Quynh Bang commune (Quynh Luu) invested in renovating ponds to raise shrimp in net houses. Initially, the new investment facilities have applied sensors to measure the temperature in the ponds. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Through our research, we learned that the southern provinces, with large aquaculture enterprises in Can Tho, Ca Mau or Ben Tre as the leading ones, are quite agile, so the application of digital transformation in aquaculture and fishing is very high. Currently, some pond owners or gardeners, after mastering the digital transformation application process, have cooperated with some partners and other gardeners to expand the supply of seeds and open their own chain of stores; at the same time, gradually moving towards providing services and equipment for other pond owners.

In the field of fisheries exploitation, according to Mr. Tran Xuan Nhue - Head of Exploitation Management Department, Department of Fisheries, said: With the current fishing conditions, the most reasonable form of electronic fishing logbook instead of paper book is to replace it. Each fishing vessel only needs 1 smartphone for fishermen to enter data into the software and send it to the fishing port and shore station for management and monitoring. Previously, the Movimart voyage monitoring device had the feature of connecting fishing vessels with the shore monitoring station and only needed software to connect with the fishermen's smartphone. However, currently, there are no new VMS voyage devices installed on vessels, so research must be done to update them.

A sustainable shrimp farming model must meet the standards of applying environmentally friendly technology and investing in modern infrastructure and applying high technology. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Mr. Tran Nhu Long - Deputy Head of Nghe An Fisheries Sub-Department shared: according to the Digital Transformation Project, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Directorate of Fisheries currently have software for managing and monitoring aquaculture and fishing, especially the VMS journey monitoring system on fishing vessels. In Nghe An, due to limited budget conditions, the plan to apply digital transformation of fisheries is included in the digital transformation plan of the Agriculture sector, but in the long term, if there are resources, a separate Plan and Project will be issued for easy supervision.