Viet Nam should promote AI in agriculture

On November 14 in Ho Chi Minh City, a seminar titled "AI and Vietnamese Agriculture in the Era of Data Transformation, Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence" was organized by the Institute of Agricultural Science for Southern Viet Nam (IASVN) in collaboration with SNE Company (South Korea).

The event drew participation from numerous scientists, experts, and technology companies, as artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly seen as a new driving force for optimizing agricultural production and improving product quality. Experts shared updated insights on the current state of the sector and introduced low-cost AI application models that could be deployed directly at the farm level.

Information from the Viet Nam Fruits and Vegetables Association (Vinafruit) shows that the fruit sector continues to grow strongly, with export revenue reaching USD 7.15 billion in 2024 and expected to reach USD 8 billion in 2025. Despite achieving impressive results, the fruit production sector remains fragmented due to weak linkages. Mechanization has limitations, and GAP-certified area ratios remain low, posing significant challenges for digital transformation and technology adoption. Global markets increasingly demand transparent production processes and environmentally-friendly products. The pressure of the new context calls for a deeper application of AI, IoT, and blockchain.

Nguyen Van Muoi, Deputy Secretary-General of Vinafruit, stated, “Applying AI and digital technologies for early warning and production transparency is an urgent requirement for agriculture today. If deployed early, these technologies can reduce risks related to weather and climate, increase productivity, improve quality, and form a foundation for sustainable production.”

Dr. Tran Thi Tuyet Van (An Giang University) emphasized the role of AI in modern agriculture. “When combined with IoT, AI supports fast and accurate plant disease recognition through images, drone-based crop monitoring, robotic harvesting, and automatic irrigation and nutrition systems. However, investment costs and shortages of highly skilled personnel remain major bottlenecks,” said Dr. An.

According to Chang Sehun, CEO of SNE Company, Viet Nam should not first focus on billion-dollar “smart farm” models that are difficult to scale, but instead start with data digitalization as a foundation before applying advanced AI. Currently, fewer than 4% of farming households meet VietGAP standards, and most field logs are still handwritten, resulting in fragmented, non-standardized data.

“Viet Nam has a developed agricultural sector but low digitalization levels. Once data becomes standardized and digitized, AI can demonstrate strong effectiveness in traceability control, quality assessment, yield forecasting, production decision-making optimization, and export capacity improvement,” said CEO Chang Sehun.

At the seminar, the representative from South Korea introduced a low-cost AI SaaS platform that digitizes farming logs with AI-OCR and stores them in a data lake for analysis and forecasting. The system can predict agricultural prices with over 92% accuracy, estimate yields from satellite data, and assess plant growth from smartphone images. SNE Company is piloting these solutions by developing models in Lam Dong, Bac Giang, and Dong Nai, in cooperation with IAS and WinMart.

The seminar concluded that digital transformation in Viet Nam’s agricultural sector should begin with data digitization and farm-level information management before implementing higher-level AI solutions. This is considered a practical pathway to improve production efficiency, enhance traceability, reduce costs, and support small-scale farmers in transitioning to smart, sustainable agriculture.

“AI is opening major opportunities for Vietnamese agriculture. The possibilities are endless, from weather forecasting, pest detection, and production optimization to international-standard traceability. In the context of climate change, disease risks, and labor shortages, AI adoption is essential for developing green and sustainable agriculture,” said Truong Vinh Hai, Vice President of IAS.

SNE Company - a company sponsored by the Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute (KEITI) - currently operates a B2B agricultural trading platform using artificial intelligence (AI) called “B·good”, which is highly regarded by international experts thanks to the AI​-OCR (optical character recognition) technology developed by the company itself. This solution is opening a new direction for the digital transformation process in Vietnam's agriculture, particularly in the field of traceability and agricultural product quality management.

*Currency exchange: USD 1 = VND 26.378 - Source: Vietcombank, November 16, 2025.