Application of technology and digital transformation in agricultural production

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS THE TREND AND SOLUTION

In 2021, in the context of the economy facing many difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic, agriculture continued to make its mark and was one of the pillars of our country's economy. Despite the difficulties of the first days of the fourth wave of the pandemic, the chorus of good harvests and falling prices, and the story of agricultural product congestion at the border gates of the northern provinces in the first days of 2022, our country's agricultural exports for the first time reached a record figure of nearly 60 billion USD. To achieve the above impressive achievements, one of the successes of our country's agriculture and farmers is to havedigital transformation applicationinto production, connecting supply and demand for products.

Yen Thanh farmers harvest Vinh oranges. Photo: Tien Dong

Obviously, in the context of trading activities being interrupted and suspended due to the requirements of epidemic prevention according to the Zero Covid plan, introducing and selling goods in general and agricultural products in particular online is a solution "when the going gets tough, the smart ones come out". Many provinces, especially the northern provinces such as Bac Giang, Hung Yen, ... due to the epidemic being locked down while carrots, lychees, and longans are in the harvest season, have proactively livestreamed to introduceonline shopping.

Thanks to the ministries, branches, large corporations, experts connecting, consulting and guiding, farmers, cooperatives, and businesses in the provinces supplementing and perfecting the conditions and documents for online sales on online platforms, in the context of the complicated epidemic in our country, the products, especially lychee and longan, still reach the national market and are even exported to some European markets. Following the lessons of Bac Giang, Hung Yen, Hoa Binh, Ha Giang and some southern provinces also organize fairs and livestream online sales.

Sticking traceability stamps on Vinh oranges in Quy Hop. Photo: Quang An

In parallel with the online sales organization, the industry has also gradually deployed investment in technical infrastructure for digital transformation. Currently, although the cooperative sector and household economy still have many limitations in applying scientific and technological achievements and automation to agricultural production, there are large corporations and farms in the agricultural sector that have applied one of the contents of digital transformation to production such as:smart technology applications, automate and monitor the temperature in the greenhouse model to water the plants. Just need a sensor device in the greenhouse to report the indicators in the garden, then the garden owner can remotely turn on the irrigation system or mix the corresponding fertilizer solutions to take care of the plants, fruits...

In Nghe An, although the start was a bit slower, on the basis of products that have built quality management profiles, brands or built products according to OCOP standards, some orange, lemon, guava and some other seafood products have been given barcodes and QR codes, agriculture has taken the first steps in applying digital transformation.

The iron-hulled boat serving offshore fishing has some modern equipment but fishermen are not used to using it. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Recently, the Department of Agriculture and Viettel Group have applied a software called Vo So to introduce the province's agricultural products; at the same time, they have coordinated with the Provincial Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center to organize a livestream event to introduce oranges in Yen Thanh. In addition, based on the provided QR labels, some gardeners and households have organized livestreams to introduce and sell products online. Thanks to opening this direction, the province's key agricultural products such as oranges, guavas, clean vegetables, etc. still reach consumers, with less congestion and stagnation as in the first year of the pandemic.

Although the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has just issued a directive document on promoting the application of digital transformation, the province has taken the first steps in digital transformation. Along with forming a framework to advise and direct the leaders of departments and branches, the provincial People's Committee has advised the provincial People's Committee to issue a Project to support the application of high technology in agricultural production, which is one of the first steps in digital transformation.

Mr. Ngo Hoang Khanh - Head of Science and Technology Management Department, Nghe An Department of Agriculture and Rural Development

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN AGRICULTURE - WHAT NEEDS NGHE AN TO DO?

The representative of the Department of Science and Technology Management, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development also said that the agricultural sector, due to many shortcomings in infrastructure and limited smart technology platforms, from human resources to software, will certainly encounter many difficulties and challenges in the implementation process. However, this is a new field, opening up prospects and finding output for agriculture, so the industry will certainly research and prepare seriously.

According to experts, digital transformation in the agricultural sector needs to be understood as the process of building technical infrastructure, building a digital software database in the agricultural sector on that basis, applying smart technology and modern technology to production, care, management and sales. Accordingly, based on the barcode or QR code indexes issued by the authorities for each product, partners and customers can use just a smartphone, no matter where they are, to know how the goods they order are produced, who is supervised and who is responsible for the product.

Sticking a traceability stamp on Vinh oranges. Photo: Quang An

Mr. Cao Xuan Tuan - Deputy Director of the Provincial Agricultural Extension Center, a member participating in the high-tech, smart agricultural model in Japan, shared: Any Japanese citizen who works in agriculture, if they produce but cannot consume all of it in their family, can bring it to any store in a nearby supermarket chain to consign or sell. Any customer can come to buy and use the product with peace of mind without worrying about the quality because each product is associated with the name of each household owner that has been supervised and licensed by the authorities. If that household produces goods that do not ensure quality, and the authorities inspect and detect chemical residues that cause customer poisoning, that household must take full responsibility and the opportunity for its products to reach the market will no longer exist.

On the other hand, the application of technology and digital transformation in agriculture also includes equipping smart devices and software in the garden or farm, the gardener does not necessarily have to be present at the farm. After synchronous investment, each smart farmer can simultaneously take care of and manage hundreds of hectares of vegetables and fruit farms because with just one operation on the smart software, the garden will be watered, the defective product batch will be detected; the above process is connected to the quality management and monitoring system, so it is impossible to arbitrarily exploit and harvest after spraying and watering solutions and chemicals without enough days.

Leaders of Nghe An Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center were interviewed at the livestream cam program in Yen Thanh at the end of 2021. Photo courtesy of Tien Dong

The above reality shows that digital transformation in agriculture in our country in general and Nghe An in particular is still at a rudimentary level. In fact, out of more than 1,200 product brands inspected and granted trademarks by the province, only a few dozen agricultural products in the province have barcodes or QR codes. Investment in equipment is also limited, the province does not have a large enough support policy, making businesses not interested and people difficult to access. Currently, only a few models of greenhouses and greenhouses by businesses and large farm owners in Nghia Dan, Thai Hoa town apply automatic technology to monitor and adjust watering for plants; models of businesses, farms, and households organizing livestream sales are still very few and have not attracted a large number of viewers and interactions.

Therefore, to accelerate the progress of digital transformation in the agricultural sector, in our opinion, the province needs to soon issue an implementation roadmap, along with continuing to study the mechanism of leasing land from farmers or organizing land consolidation and plot exchange once again to accumulate land for businesses and farming households with the capacity to invest in infrastructure and do smart agriculture. On the other hand, the province also needs to support the construction of pilot and demonstration models; regularly encourage and accompany farmers in connecting, organizing forums and online sales booths; have a mechanism for clean and reputable products to be included in national and international online sales websites to encourage farmers to make and consume clean products that meet safety standards./.