On the morning of June 18, the online conference "Digital transformation in agriculture and rural development" was jointly organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Information and Communications. At the conference, Mr. Nguyen Huy Dung, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, presented the effectiveness of the digital transformation process in agriculture.

Digital transformation is doing things differently

According to Mr. Nguyen Huy Dung: “Digital transformation is doing things differently, how we did things before, now we do things differently, thanks to data and digital technology”. This simple definition was further explained by Mr. Dung with the story of 2 farmers: tradition and applying technology to production.

By applying it to all stages before, during and after the crop, the second farmer achieved outstanding efficiency in agriculture, improving productivity, saving time, saving effort, and facilitating consumption.

According to the Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, the current challenges are how to improve efficiency, improve performance, and increase income for farmers. “From this perspective, the room for breakthrough development in agriculture in the coming period is huge. It is not an exaggeration to say that agriculture will be the key factor for Vietnam's economy to develop sustainably,” said Mr. Nguyen Huy Dung.

Accordingly, the current goal in short is how farmers can produce quality agricultural products at the lowest cost but sell them at the highest price. Digital transformation to develop digital agriculture is one of the keys to successfully achieving this goal.

In digital agriculture, in addition to traditional means of production, farmers also use digital materials, which are digital data and digital technology. Therefore, farmers will have to have more knowledge and skills in commerce, technology, and biology, not just production skills.

Instead of simply “looking at the sky, looking at the land, looking at the clouds”, farmers will “look at data, look at data and look at data”. Instead of simply buying seeds and fertilizers, farmers will also buy data. And the State can help all Vietnamese farmers by creating basic data that is ready and free.

In digital agriculture, in addition to selling agricultural products, farmers can also sell experiences. The way we perceive things should change, instead of seeing them as just agricultural production, let’s see them as agricultural economics, instead of seeing them as just agricultural economics, let’s see them as agricultural digital economy.

Instead of just trying to meet the need to “eat to be full”, let’s also meet the need to “eat well”. Instead of just solving the problem of the needs of the majority, let’s also meet the problem of individualization, the needs of small groups of different users. Digital transformation and digital technology allow us to solve this problem. This is digital agriculture.

“From the above perspectives, we can see that digital agriculture is both an old and new concept. What digital agriculture is essentially depends on how we think and how we do it. Therefore, the above perspectives are certainly not complete. Each of us can add our own perspectives”, Deputy Minister Nguyen Huy Dung commented.

5 agricultural problems

According to Mr. Nguyen Huy Dung, digital transformation will help us solve a number of specific problems for the agriculture and rural development sector, including 5 main issues.

The first is the problem that Vietnam has a large number of farming households, but small farming scale, low investment capital, old and outdated equipment. This problem leads to weaknesses such as lack of cooperation, fragmented and small-scale production, dependence on intermediary traders.

Digital transformation can solve the problem with electronic trading floors, eliminating intermediaries. In addition, it allows the collection of data on market prices in many different localities and countries, automatic price comparison, updated with daily, weekly or monthly frequency and even predicting future prices.

Digital transformation also allows farmers in the same industry to connect with each other regardless of geographical distance.

The second problem is that farmers still rely mainly on qualitative experience, less on quantitative data, and have almost no information about parameters on their own cultivated land such as weather, light, rainfall or minerals.

Digital transformation can solve the problem by having an agricultural digital data platform so that farmers know and make the best use of their advantages. State agencies can create useful data for farmers by analyzing soil conditions, satellite images, weather data or other factors.

The third problem is that post-harvest processing and preservation is only done on a small, rudimentary scale, leading to agricultural products being damaged quickly, with a short duration, and the quality when they reach consumers is reduced.

Digital transformation can solve the problem by using sensors to collect information about the storage environment, then process and analyze it. The data after analysis will be sent to the notification screen for drivers or warehouse managers according to service quality standards.

Digital transformation can help trace the origin of agricultural products, allowing transparency in the process and quality standards of agricultural products.

The next problem is slow shipping time, high shipping costs, leading to reduced competitiveness. Digital transformation can solve the problem by connecting with carriers, optimizing warehouse locations and delivery routes.

And the last problem, farmers still do not have easy access to credit for production.

Digital transformation can solve the problem by deploying mobile money, allowing farmers to easily access credit with just their smartphones. Through transaction and credit history, farmers have the ability to access loans with appropriate interest rates.

According to nongnghiep.vn