Leveraging sustainable agriculture

The ground-breaking ceremony of the industrial zone for agriculture in Thai Binh province

In the morning of February 14, an industrial zone (IZ) specialised in agriculture broke ground to attract investment and agricultural producers, strengthen the mechanisation and industrialisation at agricultural and rural areas by promoting sustainable development.

Located in Thai Binh, a northern province with developing agricultural infrastructure and a highly skilled agricultural workforce, the IZ is expected to create a background for promoting modern agriculture with high-value products that are internationally competitive.

With the total investment of VND7.8 trillion ($339.13 million) to be disbursed until 2021 and an area of 194 hectares, this project by Truong Hai Auto Corporation (THACO) will promote exports and domestic consumption at the same time.

Before the IZ, the Quang Nam People’s Committee issued a decision on investment in the High-Tech Agriculture Zone in eastern Quang Nam south-central province for T&T Group JSC, with the total investment of over VND3.3 trillion ($143.48 million). The 278ha project includes three stages to be built in 50 years.

This project will have a planting area applying high-technologies and a production support area with modern infrastructure. Besides developing agricultural areas which produce goods on a large scale, the project also aims to grow flowers and vegetables with high productivity and quality.

Besides, in the very first days of the Year of the Pig, Dong Giao Foodstuff Export JSC (Doveco) in Tam Diep district in the northern province of Ninh Binh exported its first containers of fruits and vegetables to Japan.

More than 15 years since its equitisation, Doveco’s products are now available in more than 50 countries and territories, including demanding markets like Japan, Germany, and Europe. In 2018, the company’s sales turnover was VND1.9 trillion ($82.6 million), including an export turnover of $70 million.

Foundation for sustainability

Over the years, the Vietnamese government has been calling for investment in high-tech agricultural development. Besides, ministries, relevant authorities, and localities have been working to create favourable conditions for this transformation. Thus, more and more enterprises have been willing to invest in hitech agriculture.

One such investor is Nguyen Thanh My. After over 20 years of living and working for huge brands in the US and Canada, registering over 150 inventions, he returned to his hometown of the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh in 2004 to establish My Lan Group. Witnessing the bitter losses of thousands of hectares of arable land affected by salinisation during the dry season of 2015-2016, My decided to build floating water quality measurement stations. “We can take measurements each hour to monitor the water’s salt content, PH-level, and turbidity. Every 15 minutes, information is uploaded online, which we can access by mobile phone,” he said.

Farmers can easily check water quality without having to taste it or using time-consuming measurement methods.

“I hope that we can build more monitoring stations to help farmers limit salinisation and map out the impacts of climate change,” My said.

He also created a motherboard to remotely control irrigation dams to help farmers easily pump water anytime. “Farmers’ income is very low. We use simple and cheap motherboards to help irrigating systems become smart.”

In only three years, My and his staff invented a range of smart equipment to help farmers reduce human work and raise productivity – while ensuring environment-friendliness.

Not only My, many other firms have also been using modern technology in their agricultural production. For example, as a small and new enterprise in Hanoi, Thuy Thien Nhu JSC, which manages the ORFARM organic food distribution and manufacturing chain and EM GREEN Thuy Thien Nhu Farm, has been applying technology in agriculture from the get-go. Pre-programmed watering, fertilising, and animal care have helped the company save costs. “With technology, we need only two people instead of a dozen to take care of 1,000 pigs,” Bui Bich Lien, CEO of the company, told VIR.

According to Lien, in the era of technology, people are becoming tools to use machines. In case an employee quits their job, the enterprise can immediately get someone else to operate the machines without taking too much time to train workers and disturbing the system. “The software of business management, accounting, production and distribution chain management help Thuy Thien Nhu minimise the negative impacts of the lack or sudden change in personnel.”

Being aware of its environmental responsibilities, Thuy Thien Nhu has also applied Japan’s EM technology at its farm, which is environmentally friendly and is considered the technology of the future. “EM enhances the diversity of microorganisms. Healthy soil and clean water are maintained by the diversity and balance microorganisms within them,” Lien explained enthusiastically.

Strategic leverage

Addressing the ground-breaking ceremony of the IZ for agriculture in Thai Binh, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said, “Developing smart agriculture can be a strategic lever for Thai Binh to catch up with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Deep processing is the key to enhance value and ensure effective and sustainable development.”

When visiting Doveco, the PM emphasised the importance of applying high-technology in agriculture. He said, “Vietnam currently has 27.3 million ha of arable land. With Doveco’s productivity of more than VND250 million ($10,869) per ha, our agricultural production value could be nearly $300 billion. If we can reach VND500 million ($21,739) per ha, which I mentioned in Thai Binh, we could earn about $600 billion.”

The PM also proposed the agricultural sector to apply sensor technology, robots, unmanned aircrafts, Big Data, cloud computing, and IoT, among others.

“Smart agriculture can definitely become a strategic leverage for Vietnam to fulfil its dual goals: to become an economy with a high average income by 2035, as well as a fair and equal society with a distinct cultural identity and a sustainable rural agricultural environment,” PM Phuc said.