Digital transformation will create 'digital farmers'

On March 30, the Vietnam National University of Agriculture organized a National Scientific Conference: Current status of perspectives, orientations and solutions for sustainable development of agriculture, rural economy and farmers associated with national digital transformation, urbanization and climate change adaptation.

Speaking at the Conference, Prof. Dr Tran Duc Vien, Chairman of the Academic Science and Training Council of the Vietnam National University of Agriculture and head of the project K.X04.20/21-25 shared that the purpose of the Conference is to create an academic forum for researchers and lecturers inside and outside the Academy to discuss and create conditions for members to participate in the task of consulting experts to find bottlenecks. They relate to the implementation viewpoints and policies to develop agriculture, rural economy, and farmers associated with national digital transformation, urbanization and adaptation to climate change in recent times.

At the same time, in order to propose new perspectives, directions, and solutions for the sustainable development of agriculture, rural economy, and farmers associated with national digital transformation, urbanization and adaptation to climate change in the coming time.

Also at the Conference, Dr Nguyen Minh Duc, Faculty of Economics and Rural Development (Vietnam National University of Agriculture) pointed out the opportunities and challenges of farmers in the digital transformation process.

According to the research team of the Vietnam National University of Agriculture, opportunities for digital transformation have opened up thanks to the remarkable progress of new technologies from the groundbreaking Industrial Revolution 4.0. Especially in digital technology with the main pillars being cloud computing technology, big data, the Internet of Things, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality.

Digital transformation brings many opportunities, but the digital transformation process also has many difficulties and challenges, of which the biggest difficulty of digital transformation is changing perception; second is the institutional challenge related to adapting to the rapid change of digital technology and the real-digital environment and technological challenge relating to the ability to create and master digital technology.

It is known that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has developed a Digital Transformation Project for the Agriculture sector for the period 2021-2025, oriented to 2030 with 3 main pillars: digital government, digital agricultural economy and digital countryside with digital farmers to achieve the goal of implementing agricultural digital transformation quickly, synchronously and effectively. Digital-conversing subjects include state agencies, businesses, cooperatives and farmers.

In particular, digital transformation will create "digital farmers", who are farmers who use digital technology in their agricultural production process. Digital transformation for farmers means changing the traditional production mindset of farmers to a transparent and responsible agriculture. Digital transformation for farmers is the change farmers make in production processes and consumption of products based on digital technology application software and deeply participating in e-commerce platforms.

Sharing at the Conference, Dr Mai Van Trinh, Director of the Vietnam National University of Agriculture said that to have sustainable agriculture, it is necessary to deploy agricultural production activities that both adapt to climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet the internationally committed target of net zero emissions by 2050. We need solutions to select plant and animal breeds to adapt to weather changes, resist drought, saltwater intrusion, and floods, change cropping systems to suit new climatic conditions, change seasonal schedules to avoid extreme climates and add solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as water management in rice fields, managing fertilizer for crops, improving animal feed, treating livestock waste, managing livestock waste and crop by-products, applying good agricultural practices and organic agriculture...