Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - No longer a new or luxuriousconcept, hi-tech and high-quality agricultural products are now a must for modern Vietnamese consumers.

Many hi-tech agricultural projects have been launched across the nation, mostinvolving technology transfer from more advanced economies looking to tapdemand generated by higher living standards.

A notable one among these is implemented by VinEco Agricultural Investment,Development and Productions LLC. (VinEco), a member of Vingroup Joint StockCompany (Vingroup). It is the current supplier for Vingroup’s retail chainVinmart and its outlets, stocking their shelves every day with a variety offresh produce.

Since early 2015, the company has been at the frontline of Vietnam’s hi-tech,large-scale, certified agricultural production, with focus on clean,standardised crops using technology from Israel, Japan and other developedcountries. They now operate a total of 14 farms in different regions in thecountry, five of them in the northern provinces.  

Lai Duc Luu, Production Manager at VinEco Tam Dao Farm in Vinh Phuc province, talked aboutthe positive effects that hi-tech farming had on agricultural production andmarketing in the country, and how consumers responded.

Luu said that their production process was scientifically planned andimplemented in strict compliance with national and global standards, startingfrom research to seeds selection, irrigation, to harvest, storage and finaldistribution. The technology had been obtained from Israeli company TeshuvaAgricultural Projects (TAP).

The entire farm spans across acres of open fields, greenhouses,post harvest factories and cold-storage areas using computerised automatic technologiesfrom beginning to end.

Attention is paid to different regions’ topographical and geological conditionsto ensure the final products’ qualification.

At the VinEco farm, automation and technological control begin at the plantingstage. On an automated belt, seeds are planted in specially-made foam boxes,stuffed with bedding materials, including compressed minerals, sawdust, ricebran and husk, before being placed in incubation chambers with tighttemperature, humidity and light controls for less than 24 hours.

Foam boxes will then be placed in greenhouses for the seedlings to maturegrowth, or to become a variety of sprouts, a favourite among VinEco customersat the moment.

Inside its greenhouses, the farm employs a drip and sprinkler irrigationsystem, transferred in whole from Israel by the company Netafim. Luu describedthis irrigation system as “an advanced automatic technique for slowly andregularly dripping water onto the soil, from a system of small diameter plasticpipes fitted with outlets called emitters or drippers”.

This advanced irrigation method relies on a network of sprinklers sprayingwater over the greenhouse crops with high pressure pumps through small nozzles,saving up to 30 to 50 percent of water compared to traditional furrowirrigation, cutting down 90 percent of manual labour.

Not only does the new greenhouse irrigation system ensure a balanced,distributed water flow to each individual plant’s roots, it also provides anideal level of moisture and air circulation for the vegetables, Luu said. Theprocess is fully computerised using motion sensors that require minimum manualcontrol.

Besides the drip irrigation, a fertigation system is also applied to directlyprovide crops with the precise amount of fertiliser needed at different growthstages, thus optimising crop growth through strict control of nutrient supply.

These advanced technological systems supposedly simulate the best conditions tomaximise crop yield and quality while minimising the amount of care, water andfertiliser used, according to Pham Van Hoi, supervisor of the farm’sgreenhouses.

Hoi explained that the new farming method of exposing the sprouts to sunlightin the greenhouse environment, instead of growing them in the shade likebefore, had been a great improvement. The presence of UV light helps reduceharmful fungi on the leave surface, ensuring clean and off-the-stem ediblegreens.

Luu said the new production methods helped produce much higher quality productsand significantly increasing consumption. At the moment, productivity on hisfarm had increased to a minimum of ten and a maximum of fifteen tonnes ofvegetables per day, depending on the seasons, from two to five tonnes worthsince the first batch in late 2015.

The automatic process does not stop at the monitored greenhouses, but extendsto the harvesting and packaging stages as well. Once the vegetables are mature,they are manually taken to a warehouse where a cutting machine churns outbatches of greens on to metal trays in seconds.

The freshly cut vegetables will then be put into plastic boxes with specific QRcodes printed on the labels, allowing consumers to scan them and trace theirplace of origin, i.e. VinEco’s farm. Afterward, these boxes are shippeddirectly to Vinmart stores and their smaller counterparts, Vinmart , withinhours of harvesting to guarantee freshness and quality.

Thanks to these modern production methods, a huge selection of sprout, leafyand root vegetables are readily available for purchase at Vingroup’s retailoutlets. The positive response from consumers over the last two years hasprompted the firm to expand its farms and increased production since its launchin 2015.
Luu said as VinEco increases its farming areaand number of greenhouses, it will also expand its focus towards exporting itsbest-selling sprouts.

Avner Shohet, CEO of TAP, told that since the completion of its firstgreenhouse for VinEco’s Tam Dao Farm, there has been growing demand for theclean and hi-tech products among both end consumers and high end restaurants.

“Vietnam is essentially agrarian but unlike other East Asian countries itmaintains stringent quality standards which also apply to its agriculturalproduction. I think that the key point for the development of hi-techagriculture in Vietnam is training. It is very important to train farmers toadapt advanced technology. It is very important to teach and train them inpost-harvest process, food safety and sustainability,” said Shohet.

More and more farmers and enterprises are adopting Vietnamese Good AgriculturePractice (VietGAP) standards set by the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (MARD).

A significant part of domestic agricultural production is now monitored basedon several criteria including food safety, environmental protection, labourwelfare and product quality.

Under the Government’s Decision 176/QĐ-TTg, by 2020, Vietnam will be home to200 hi-tech agricultural businesses and 10 hi-tech agricultural zones, and thesector will register an annual growth rate of over 3.5 percent.

Thus far, the Government’s vision of hi-tech agriculture as a breakthroughsolution for ensuring food security, boosting exports and sustainabledevelopment seems well founded.-VNA