Technology to support farmers

Farmers of Cai Kinh commune implement drip irrigation model in custard apple cultivation

One morning at the end of August, we had the opportunity to visit the custard apple garden of Mr. Ma Van Let's family in Quan Thanh village, Chi Lang commune. In 2022, with the support of the state, his family installed an automatic misting irrigation system, directly connected to a smartphone with a total amount of more than 150 million VND. Mr. Let said: With just one operation of opening the application, I can adjust the amount of water, watering time, and even mix fertilizer into the water to increase nutrition for the plant. This system helps save about half the amount of water compared to traditional irrigation and especially allows for spread-out custard apple cultivation. From August to November, the custard apple garden yields 10-15 harvests, with uniform fruit, 3-4 fruits reaching 1 kg. Thanks to that, traders often buy at the garden, the selling price is stable, bringing in an income of 350-400 million VND per year.

Not only in farming, technology also has a clear effect in animal husbandry. Ms. Ha Thi Hien, Quang Hoa village, Chau Son commune said: In 2023, with the propaganda of the Farmers' Association of Dinh Lap district (old), my family invested 300 million VND to build a closed barn, using an automatic food and water supply system, exhaust fans, waste treatment and incubators for chickens and ducklings. Thanks to that, taking care of livestock becomes easier, the risk of disease is reduced, and we can take the initiative in breeding. Currently, the family regularly raises nearly 400 chickens and ducks; income is over 300 million VND/year.

Not only Mr. Lep or Ms. Hien, more and more Lang Son farmers consider technology as the key to developing production. The whole province currently has more than 142,000 farmer members, in the period 2020 - 2025, more than 54,000 households registered to participate in the Good Farmers in Production and Business movement, of which more than 45,000 households were recognized. Notably, over 80% of households achieving this title have applied at least one scientific and technological advance to the production model, from cultivation, processing to consumption. Many households have boldly invested in drip irrigation equipment, moisture-retaining film, soil quality sensors, and at the same time built growing area codes, traced product origins, and utilized social networks and e-commerce platforms to promote and consume agricultural products.

Mr. Hoang Van Ngon, Chairman of the Provincial Farmers' Association, said: In recent years, the association has closely coordinated with agricultural and forestry extension agencies and businesses to organize training, transfer techniques, and promote safe agricultural production in the direction of good agricultural practices such as VietGAP, GlobalGAP, and organic. At the same time, the association supports farmers to visit and learn about effective technology application models, build a safe agricultural product supply chain, and link with digital transformation in agriculture, contributing to the sustainable development of Lang Son agriculture.

From 2020 to present, the Provincial Farmers' Association has organized more than 120 training conferences, integrating propaganda on skills in using digital technology in production, farming, developing high-tech agriculture... for more than 12,200 members; guiding more than 80,000 households to sign a commitment to produce agricultural products ensuring food safety and hygiene; supporting more than 1,600 households to maintain e-commerce accounts to promote and consume products... In particular, the Farmers' Support Fund has disbursed over 57 billion VND to more than 1,600 households to borrow capital to invest in applying science and technology. Thanks to that, the whole province has nearly 3,600 hectares of crops produced according to VietGAP standards; of which, custard apple alone has over 1,500 hectares meeting GlobalGAP standards.

From 2024 to present, the whole province has had more than 20,000 agricultural products put on e-commerce platforms with nearly 50,000 successful transactions. In particular, many typical OCOP products such as custard apple, Bao Lam persimmon, Dinh Lap tea, Bac Son tangerine, honey, roast duck... have been standardized in quality, brand and widely available in the market.

It can be seen that technology is gradually permeating every stage of agricultural production in Lang Son. More importantly, technology also changes farmers' thinking, from small-scale production to commodity production, from traditional production to standard processes. Thanks to that, many households have not only escaped poverty but also become well-off, contributing to reducing the multidimensional poverty rate (including poor and near-poor households) in the whole province by 11.36%, equivalent to about 23,363 households out of a total of 205,621 households, realizing the goal of sustainable poverty reduction.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/cong-nghe-tiep-suc-nha-nong-5056859.html