Industry 4.0 offers opportunities for agricultural breakthroughs

ABO/NDO – In the 4th Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), agriculture is considered one among the most lucrative sectors with opportunities to make breakthroughs. As smart agriculture is an inevitable trend, domestic tech enterprises have actively researched and developed solutions to help Vietnam's agriculture sector to realise this goal.

An agricultural crop cultivation model using smart solutions run by VNPT in Hanoi’s Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park.

Complete solution for agricultural production

Smart agriculture is the next development step of high-tech agriculture, in which information technology (IT) will not only be applied to several stages but also the entire production process, even the post-production stages, such as preliminary processing, packaging, preservation and distribution, especially in the context of increasingly complex climate change, making cultivation based on experience no longer accurate.

 

Therefore, developing a Big Data source to provide information to farmers through applications and software is an effective solution for smart agriculture. In Vietnam, there are a lot of IT application solutions dedicated to agricultural production, from individual solutions for each stage of production, such as the system of measuring parameters of air environment, soil moisture and precipitation by Mimosa TEK Company, to more integrated solutions, such as the SmartAgri system which helps manage agricultural production from germination and sowing to harvesting and preservation by Global Cyber ​​Soft Vietnam, or the hydroponic farming system developed by Hachi Company.

 

In several recent exhibitions and seminars on IT, the Smart Agriculture solution by the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) has attracted the attention of multiple parties through its complete features, usable for both cultivation and animal husbandry. Specifically, this solution not only helps to measure all parameters of soil and environment, recommends irrigation time and suitable lighting times for each farm, it also helps livestock farms manage all stages, such as feeding systems, lighting, egg harvesting, fecal collection and heating.

 

In addition, with the integration of Big Data analysis technology, VNPT's Smart Agriculture also allows farm owners to analyse, forecast and take initiative in planning production, transportation and storage, bringing the highest capable economic efficiency. Users can control the system via a mobile application also developed by VNPT.

 

Currently, VNPT's smart agricultural solution has been applied in multiple places and brought about initial results, such as in Delco farm (Bac Ninh province). In addition, VNPT has also developed a cultivation area on the campus of its second electronic factory in Hanoi’s Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park, applying Smart Agriculture in the cultivation of various agricultural crops. VNPT has been supplementing various industries such as muskmelon, mustard greens, malabar nightshade and lettuce. Through monitoring the operation of the system and the development of agricultural crops in the garden, VNPT has improved and supplemented additional features to gradually complete its solution in a more suitable manner for each crop.

 

 

Along with production support solutions, VNPT also provides VNPT Check – a solution to authenticate the origin of products to help protect brands and support the output for agricultural products. This is considered an effective solution to help farmers easily control and trace the origin of goods, avoiding their products being counterfeited or imitated, thus losing credibility with consumers.

 

In addition, VNPT Check is also an effective channel for businesses to advertise their products. Currently, this solution is being chosen by multiple provinces and cities across the country to protect brandnames for agricultural products in particular and provincial specific products in general. For example, Ben Tre uses VNPT Check to attach traceability stamps to eight major agricultural products of the province, including coconut, green skin pomelo, rambutan, longan, ornamental flowers, pigs, cows and sea shrimp. Quang Ninh is using it for agricultural and non-agricultural products under its "One Commune One Product" (OCOP) programme, while Bac Giang uses VNPT Check to protect product brands for local agricultural cooperatives and production and distribution companies.

 

Thanks to its effectiveness, simplicity and reasonable costs, the VNPT's solution to authenticate the origin of goods is continuing to be chosen by multiple reliable businesses and organisations to protect their agricultural products and customers' rights. In particular, a range of famous agricultural products have also selected VNPT Check to stamp against fake goods, such as Hung Yen longan, Luc Ngan litchi, Ly Son garlic, Thanh Ha litchi, Yen The hill chicken, Tien Yen chicken and Hung Yen thorn leaf cake.

Agriculture 4.0 will be a closed process applying technologies with high quality varieties, smart fertiliser, herbal pesticides, precise cultivation, reducing seed loss and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as automation in harvesting, storage, transport and processing, in addition to using cloud computing applications for product traceability.

 

In particular, the technology solutions by VNPT are contributing to improving Vietnam’s agriculture 4.0, helping the agricultural sector to quickly access the latest technologies, thereby creating favourable conditions to increase productivity, reduce costs and avoid risks, as well as taking initiatives in market access and making a solid foundation for the development of clean, safe and sustainable agriculture.