Agriculture has always been a key economic sector in Vietnam. With the boom in 4.0 technology and international integration, agricultural activities need a strong “breakthrough” to develop the national economy. Applying high technology in agriculture is considered the optimal solution today.
The difficulties of manual agricultural production
Small-scale production using traditional manual methods is one of the reasons Vietnamese agriculture has been “marking time”. Agricultural products are gradually losing competitiveness and are always unstable in price and output. With traditional methods (mainly human labor), farmers cannot quickly produce large quantities of high-quality products.
Speaking about this situation, Mr. Pham Van Ru (owner of the Du Hoai high-tech laying hen farm in Soc Trang province) shared his real-world experience. Previously, to produce large quantities of eggs, he had to hire 50-60 workers. Labor costs sometimes ate into product profits. Furthermore, production was interrupted by problems more than once, and product quality suffered to some extent. So what is the answer to this “problem”?
The changes from applying high technology in agriculture
Clearly, manual production cannot bring positive change to agriculture in the long run. The question is how to increase the quantity and improve the quality of agricultural production. Changing production thinking toward concentration, combined with applying high technology in agriculture, is the best solution for farmers now.
In fact, Mr. Pham Van Ru's Du Hoai laying hen farm has successfully applied a high-tech model to egg production with an automated line. Every stage is automated by machinery and needs only 1-2 workers to supervise. The egg output from the automated production line always meets large-volume demand: on average, the Du Hoai farm supplies more than 400,000 industrial chicken eggs to the market every day.
An automated line in chicken egg production
Today, most livestock farms have invested in automated production lines to reduce manual labor while increasing product quantity and quality. Many farms have also added advanced equipment such as UV lamps and biological sterilizers... These devices make egg processing and cleaning fast, so product quality is 100% guaranteed when it reaches consumers.
Applying high-tech models in agriculture
Today, high-tech models in agriculture are increasingly popular. Crop and livestock farming in Vietnam have achieved many significant results by applying high technology. Some typical examples:
The greenhouse shrimp farming model
In practice, there are many different ways to farm shrimp, such as extensive farming (about 3-6 shrimp/m2) and semi-intensive farming (about 70-100 shrimp/m2)... The most widely used model today is greenhouse shrimp farming. It is regarded as a “super-intensive” model, allowing stocking densities of up to 500 shrimp/m2.
Viet-Uc JSC's Bac Lieu branch pioneered applying high technology to greenhouse shrimp farming. It invested more than 180 billion VND in 50 ha of shrimp farming. As a result, in 2017 Viet-Uc JSC achieved yields of 50-70 tonnes/ha/crop with greenhouse shrimp farming, equivalent to 300 tonnes/ha/year. So greenhouse shrimp yields are 10 times higher than traditional shrimp farming.
A high-tech greenhouse shrimp farming model
In the future, this model will continue to be improved with many high-tech applications, such as microbial technology and Israeli membrane greenhouse technology..., promising outstanding results for shrimp farming in Vietnam.
IoT technology models in crop cultivation
Today, the agriculture 4.0 model is widely applied in crop cultivation. Through analyzed and forecast data, growers can know the exact time to sow and to harvest to achieve the highest revenue... All these activities are based on digital farming technology, maximizing farmers' profits.
Remote crop cultivation with IoT technology
For example, Cau Dat Da Lat JSC (Cau Dat Farm) cultivates and produces crops using hydroponics. It now owns a large-scale farm. It has connected its clean vegetable growing system with smart agriculture solutions, applying IoT technology in many stages of cultivation and sales. As a result, the farm owner can supervise cultivation remotely through an Internet-based monitoring and control system: automatically controlling crop humidity, watering, fertilizing...
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Applying high technology in agriculture has brought real success. Although there are still many difficulties, there is no denying that these applications have changed the picture of the country's agriculture, creating a major transformation for Vietnamese agriculture in particular and the economy in general.