Ninh Binh promotes hi-tech application in agricultural production

Le Thi Dung, a farmer from Khanh Cu Commune, Yen Khanh District, has fulfilled her dream of getting rich in her homeland thanks to the successful implementation of the model on production of clean and safe agricultural products according to VietGAP standards with IoT (internet of things) application.

Dung is now Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Green Technology Investment Joint Stock Company, with 11 hectares of production land and 6,000 square metres of greenhouse to produce clean vegetables and fruits, bringing an average yield of 750 tonnes per hectare a year (four times higher than that of normally produced vegetables and fruits).

Many other farmers in the province are also working on digital transformation through the national One Commune One Product (OCOP) programme. Thus far, many OCOP products have become the main products of the province. In which, there are 21 products with four-star ratings thatare received by the market through the e-commerce platform.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Yen Hoa cooperative for production and consumption of safe specialty seedlings Mai Quang Kin said that thanks to the active application of digital transformation, the cooperative's products have eye catching packaging, labels, and traceability stamps. Through transactions on e-commerce platforms, groups of friends on Zalo, Facebook, consumption volume increased 4.5 times.

According to Head of General Operations Division under the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Dinh Van Khiem, Ninh Binh has focused on hi-tech agriculture with advanced and sustainable production models.

The province's agricultural sector has quickly restructured in a comprehensive manner, towards market orientationassociated with preservation and processing. Smart technologies have been applied in such fields as cultivation, animal husbandry, fisheries, and forestry, helping create many advantageous products such as pineapple juice, frozen products from pineapple, lychee, mango, and sweet corn which are exported in large quantities to the EU market.

Despite achieving encouraging results in the direction of commodity production and application of high technology, Ninh Binh is still facing several shortcomings. Large-scale high-tech application and agricultural production areas have not yet been established and a number of hi-tech application models in shrimp farming and safe vegetable and fruit production are effective but slow to replicate.

The inefficient conversion of rice-growing land is facing many problems, especially as the application of high technology and smart technology towards digital transformation requires large investment costs, but farmers' capital source is still limited. Many households, cooperatives and agricultural enterprises still rely on the support from the central and provincial administration.

Party committees and authorities at all levels in Ninh Binh are actively restructuring the agricultural sector; with a focus on forming raw material areas to meet the large processing needs of agricultural products; encouraging support for production cooperation and linkage activities along the value chain; promoting e-commerce activities for existing products; increasing the attraction of new and high-tech projects and smart agriculture; and creating momentum for the province's agriculture to approach digital transformation faster.

(Source: NDO)