Dong Nai Agriculture in the journey of digital transformation (Part 1)

Digital transformation (DT) in agriculture is the process of applying digital technologies from production to processing, distribution, and consumption of agricultural products, helping to form digital agriculture and smart agriculture. Currently, Dong Nai continues to promote DI in agriculture to create an environment and digital agricultural ecosystem, promote sustainable agricultural development, adapt to climate change, and increase income for people in rural areas.

Mr. Ngo Thanh Phong (residing in Hang Gon commune, Long Khanh city) introduces a mini durian garden with high economic efficiency. Photo: B.Nguyen

Lesson 1: Stories of farmers who became scientists

From production practice, many farmers in Dong Nai have become inventors, creating many types of machinery and agricultural tools, and coming up with many initiatives and technical solutions to reduce costs and improve productivity and quality of agricultural products.

Thanks to promoting useful initiatives and solutions, farmers have liberated labor, reduced costs, improved productivity and product quality, and created added value in production.

Many unique inventions

Mr. Ngo Thanh Phong (residing in Hang Gon commune, Long Khanh city) has been a good farmer at the provincial level for many years. He is a pioneer in growing mini durian, bringing high economic efficiency.
When the durian tree is about 1 meter tall, he cuts the top so that the tree can grow many large branches close to the base. When the tree is about 3.5 meters tall, he cuts the top and trims the branches after each harvest so that the mature tree always maintains a height of about 3.5 meters and a canopy diameter of only about 3.5 meters.
With this initiative, it is possible to grow nearly 300 durian trees per hectare, nearly double that of a garden grown in the traditional way. During the durian fruiting process, the garden owner only keeps about 60 fruits per tree to ensure the fruit meets export standards. And 1 hectare of mini durian yields more than 40 tons of fruit, nearly double that of a traditional durian garden.

Up to now, 100% of newly planted and replanted areas in the province have used new, high-quality varieties; applied smart, water-saving irrigation systems to more than 70,000 hectares of crops.

According to Mr. Phong, the initiative to grow mini durian is very suitable for replication in hilly, rocky, windy areas, limiting the risk of trees falling due to natural disasters. This model also brings many benefits such as: the trees bear fruit after 2 years and give high yields in the 3rd year.
The trees are short, so it is easy for growers to take care of them, manage pests and diseases, and harvest them, thus reducing labor costs and investment costs for fertilizers and pesticides. The valuable thing is that Mr. Phong did not keep this initiative for his family alone, but instead established a labor team specializing in providing agricultural services from planting, caring, preventing and treating pests and diseases, harvesting, etc. This high-tech agricultural service team has supported local farmers and many neighboring areas to expand hundreds of hectares of mini durian cultivation in the province.

In the field of livestock farming, Long Thanh Phat High-Tech Agricultural Cooperative (Long Thanh district) with many members has taken the lead in applying CNC to build large-scale industrial livestock farms. In the chain, there are many members including enterprises applying CNC to produce breeding animals, animal feed, enterprises deeply processing livestock products...

In the field of aquaculture, Mr. Nguyen Truong Dai is a pioneer farmer in Nhon Trach district in applying CNC to super-intensive shrimp farming by lining the pond and covering the pond with a net to help stabilize the temperature at an ideal level for shrimp growth. With this biosafety farming process, the shrimp are controlled cleanly from the seed stage to the stage of treating the input water source; using probiotics to prevent shrimp diseases, thus greatly limiting the use of antibiotics...

This solution helps farmers to stock shrimp at a much higher density than traditional ponds and can raise 4-5 crops per year, an increase of 2-3 crops. Therefore, the economic efficiency of applying CNC increases many times compared to the old shrimp farming model.

The whole province currently has about 1,000 hectares of bananas and rice using drones to spray pesticides; there are nearly 149 hectares of crop area using greenhouse and net house technology.

Spreading the spirit of innovation and creativity

In recent times, the province has implemented many practical programs to motivate and spread the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation among farmers in the province. Thanks to that, many exciting movements have been created, encouraging farmers to actively participate in innovation and apply scientific and technological advances in production and business activities.

Typically, in the period of 2021-2025, the Department of Science and Technology coordinated with the Provincial Farmers' Association to mobilize members and farmers to participate in the annual contest of excellent farmers applying scientific and technological advances to agricultural production in Dong Nai province. As a result, there were 41 awards for individual farmers with solutions to apply scientific and technological advances to agricultural production. In 2024 alone, the whole province had 40 solutions and initiatives participating in the contest with 17 winning solutions. In addition, many movements and contests such as: "Innovative start-up", "Technical innovation for farmers" ... were organized to promote initiatives, inventions, and useful creativity of farmers to effectively apply in production, business, and services.

Dong Nai currently has nearly 28% of livestock farms using cold barns and closed barns; 65% of the total pig herd; 49% of the total chicken herd using high technology.

Accordingly, in the province, there are more and more examples of farmers becoming inventors, creating many types of machinery and agricultural tools, and coming up with many initiatives and technical solutions to reduce costs and improve productivity and quality of agricultural products.

Typically, farmer Nguyen Cong Chinh (Xuan Phu commune, Xuan Loc district) successfully created a seed thinning machine that won first prize in the 2023 Dong Nai Province Competition for Excellent Farmers Applying Scientific and Technical Advances in Production. The seed thinning machine can sow all types of seeds of different sizes, on all types of terrain. With a 6-row thinning structure, this machine can sow more than 1 hectare per day, equivalent to about 10 manual laborers working in 2 days, with an accuracy rate of nearly 100%. This invention not only reduces sowing time, but also reduces labor costs by 1/3.

Chinh Duc Durian Cooperative (in Song Ray Commune, Cam My District) is a pioneer in investing in drones for spraying pesticides and fertilizing crops. Photo: B.Nguyen

The initiative of using chlorine gas to treat bacteria in shrimp farming water by the group of farmers Nguyen Van Linh - Duong Thi Nuong (Phuoc An commune, Nhon Trach district) brings many benefits. The solution of using chlorine gas in water treatment instead of traditional chlorine powder helps reduce costs, gives higher efficiency, especially chlorine gas helps kill more bacteria, when released into the outside environment, chlorine gas evaporates faster than chlorine powder, the water source is used sooner.

The Chinh Duc Durian Cooperative (in Song Ray Commune, Cam My District) is a pioneer in the locality in investing in drones for spraying pesticides and fertilizing crops. In addition to serving its members, the cooperative also provides spraying and fertilizing services for local gardeners, contributing to the effective expansion of CNC applications in production.
The initiative of grafting durian varieties with 3 roots and 1 shoot for high yield by Mr. Tran Van Duc, Head of the Chinh Duc Durian Cooperative Group, is also highly appreciated for its economic efficiency. With this initiative, growers choose durian seeds to sow in pots, wait for the trees to grow for about a year, then graft them with 2 Ri6 durian seedlings. Thanks to having 3 roots, 3 root systems that absorb fertilizer and water, the trees grow quickly and healthily, especially the trees are less likely to break in storms, reducing damage to the garden.

Khanh Minh - Binh Nguyen

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/kinh-te/202506/nong-nghiep-dong-nai-trong-hanh-trinh-chuyen-doi-so-bai-1-5050168/