Digital technology ready for 1 million hectares of high-quality rice

On the morning of October 9, the National Agricultural Extension Center, in collaboration with the Can Tho City Department of Agriculture and Environment, organized a seminar titled "Application of Technologies in the Management of High-Quality, Low-Emission Rice Cultivation in the Mekong Delta."

The program aimed to share research results, assessment reports, and implementation experience from models applying digital technology, IoT, and smart irrigation in field management, as well as technologies for measuring greenhouse gas emissions and soil nutrients to support the 1 million-hectare rice project.

Additionally, experts and local agricultural extension centers across the Mekong Delta shared practical lessons on production linkage within the value chain, traceability, and greenhouse gas reduction. A key focus was policy orientation to support the replication of effective models throughout the entire region.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Giang, Deputy Director of the Can Tho City Department of Agriculture and Environment, announced that to implement the "Sustainable Development of One Million Hectares of High-Quality, Low-Emission Rice Associated with Green Growth in the Mekong Delta by 2030" (referred to as the Project), Can Tho City has registered 170,000 hectares of rice to participate by 2030. The area set for implementation in 2025 is 104,500 hectares, involving 191 teams and agricultural cooperatives.

Since 2024, the city has implemented 12 pilot models (50 hectares per model) meeting the Project's criteria. Most models employ mechanized seeding technology and techniques like deep fertilizer placement. According to greenhouse gas emission measurements by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), these models have reduced emissions by 2-12 tonnes of CO2 per hectare, and their effectiveness in yield, quality, and profit has increased by at least 20% compared to non-model areas.

Based on these production results, Ms. Giang affirmed the strong need for more technologies in managing high-quality, low-emission rice cultivation. She stated that this is not only a step toward concretizing the Project but also a foundation for transitioning the Mekong Delta's agriculture toward digitalization, a green economy, and sustainability.

The Project aims to promote sustainable cultivation methods and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The core activity in this effort is the application of the Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) process.

This process is a robust, technology-driven system designed to collect data and assist agricultural extension staff and cooperatives in reporting baseline information as required.

Associate Professor Dr. Mai Van Trinh, Director of Institute for Agricultural Environment under MAE, stated that the MRV process has several key characteristics: optimizing fertilizer and water use through advanced techniques like seeding in rows, cluster seeding, slow-release deep-placement fertilizer, and smart water management; applying advanced sustainable and eco-friendly rice cultivation methods, such as Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), the "Three Reductions, Three Increases" (3R3I), and "One Right, Five Reductions" (1R5R) techniques; and enhancing the management, monitoring capacity, and knowledge of high-quality, low-emission rice production for managers, rice farmers in cooperatives, and businesses across the provinces and cities of the Mekong Delta.

An Giang is one of the localities effectively applying technology in managing high-quality, low-emission rice cultivation. Through the Central Agricultural Extension Project within the 1 million ha of rice project, the An Giang Provincial Agricultural Extension Center successfully applied water management technology following the AWD process.

Mr. Le Van Dung, Deputy Director of the An Giang Provincial Agricultural Extension Center, reported that after three seasons of applying AWD sensor technology across four cooperatives in three ecological zones of the 1 million-hectare of rice project, the devices successfully collected monitoring data, including information on soil structure, field water levels, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Data collected from smart devices and sensors are automatically stored on the cloud computing platform. This ensures data transparency and prevents tampering. The data is stored and visually reported in real-time via the LuaGPT application, allowing the models to save costs and human resources for on-field MRV measurement, reporting, and verification tasks.

Nevertheless, experts' assessments and analyses indicate that these devices still have some limitations. Consequently, Mr. Dung proposed that all localities use the same MRV measurement tools. This standardization would enable community agricultural extension staff to apply the process uniformly, saving costs and improving efficiency. He also stressed the need for supportive investment policies in agricultural mechanization to encourage farmers to adopt the entire standardized process.