Chairman of the Vietnam Farmers' Union Luong Quoc Doan
Yesterday, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Association and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development hosted the sixth National Farmers' Forum with the theme Farmers with agricultural digital transformation in Hanoi.
By November 2021, thanks to the support of ministries, competent agencies and leading enterprises in the field of e-commerce, more than two million agricultural households have received digital skills training, and nearly 50,000 products agricultural products are put on e-commerce platforms; thousands of electronic transactions are made.
The impact of the Covid-19 epidemic has changed people's consumption habits from shopping through traditional channels to buying goods online through e-commerce platforms.
Speaking at the opening of the forum, Chairman of the Vietnam Farmers' Union Luong Quoc Doan emphasized that under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, a digital transformation is no longer an option but a mandatory requirement for each country and each sector.
According to chairman Doan, being the backbone of the economy, digital transformation in the agricultural sector will be one of the key factors to help farmers, farms, cooperatives and businesses improve productivity, quality, optimize production, reduce costs, increase profits, and increase production efficiency. Therefore, successful digital transformation in agriculture will be an important factor for successful national digital transformation," said Mr. Doan.
The waves of the Covid-19 epidemic in Vietnam over the past time have shown that the application of digital technology has helped farmers erase geographical boundaries, helping to remove bottlenecks in circulation and transportation.
2021 is the first year Vietnamese farmers have sold agricultural products on the e-commerce platform. Furthermore, many farmers and agricultural vendors in remote provinces sell goods directly to urban consumers via interactive live streams and bite-sized videos
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Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien
Not only seeking consumers for agricultural products but also during the peak period of the fourth Covid-19 outbreak, e-commerce is the most effective channel for people to access certain goods and services. This has boosted the rural e-commerce market.
Currently, Vietnam is considered one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in Southeast Asia. The growth rate of e-commerce in Vietnam in 2021 is equal to the speed of the past 5-6 years combined. However, at present, the digital transformation in agriculture is still facing many difficulties. The agricultural production model in Vietnam is still mainly a small-scale production model, inefficient and lacking value chain linkages.
Accordingly, speaking at the forum, the Chairman said that the forum is an opportunity for management agencies in localities and IT companies to train farmers so that farmers will change their habits in production adapting to digital transformation plan.
Moreover, management agencies and companies reply farmers’ answers of policies and solutions for capital and land to assist farmers to enhance the application of high-tech paving the way for digital transformation in agriculture.
Mr. Doan said that, with the implementation of the National Digital Transformation Program set out by the Government, each farmer is a trader and each cooperative is an enterprise applying digital technology. It is expected that a generation of intelligent farmers will make the agriculture sector better.
Speaking at the forum, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said that many farmers have earned billions of Vietnam dong on their own gardens, fields, shrimp squares and barns. However, when they are asked what is digital transformation, not many people understand, Mr. Tien complained.
According to the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, nearly 100 excellent Vietnamese farmers and farmers who have carried out digital transformation were attending the forum.
Many farmers have applied programs and software for garden management, precision agriculture to optimize the use of resources (water, fertilizer, etc.) to gradually switch from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, creating many opportunities to increase labor productivity, reduce dependence on environmental and weather conditions, control epidemics, diseases and breed well.
Hence, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the success of the digital transformation of the agricultural sector depends on excellent farmers. Competent agencies will be the pioneers who lead millions of farmer members to step into the arduous and challenging digital transformation process, but also a great opportunity to make the "great change for the agricultural sector," said Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien.
