Agriculture digital transformation forum attracts 1,300 participants

Vietnam Agriculture Digital Transformation International Forum 2021 attracts 1,300 participations

The forum was officially organised on September 16 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vietnam Digital Agriculture Association (VIDA), and VnExpress with the theme “Keeping up with market trends, promoting the pivotal role in supporting the economy during and after the COVID-19 pandemic".

Through two symposium sessions themed "Improving the Ecosystem for Vietnam's Agriculture Digital Transformation" and "Developing Human Resources to Meet the Needs of Vietnam's Agricultural Digitalisation", the delegates discussed the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation in Vietnam and breakthrough opportunities for Vietnamese agriculture. Besides, delegates discussed the agricultural sector’s development trend and the sector’s digital transformation script by 2035.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dang Xuan from Hiroshima University said that applying digital technology in agriculture can help Vietnam become a powerful agricultural producer. Currently, 70 per cent of Vietnam's agricultural products come from 22 million small households. Therefore, we should consider every household a nucleus and start training them from an early stage," Xuan said.

“While the Vietnamese government promotes high-tech agriculture, households are still hesitant to apply new technology to improve production,” Xuan said.

Over the years, the agricultural sector and many localities have paid attention and actively applied digital solutions in agricultural production and rural management. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, more and more units have started high-tech agricultural production, especially larger enterprises.

Another highlight of the forum is that this is the first time a large-scale agricultural forum in Vietnam has applied VR technology. Participants could experience a virtual conference space with features such as Check-in, take commemorative photos at the photo booth area of the programme, receive instructions and documents at the reception area, attend the programme and ask questions from the speakers, while discussing with other participants, and many other amazing features.

Besides, people could visit the event's virtual exhibition in the past two months which has so far attracted 200,000 visitors to hundreds booths.

​​The National Digital Transformation Program to 2025, with a vision to 2030 was issued by the prime minister under Decision No.749/QD-TTg dated June 3, 2020, stating that agriculture is one of the key to be prioritised for digital transformation.