CEO of VNPT Technology: 'Finding a model to bring technology into agriculture towards the entire population'

Mr. Tran Huu Quyen said that there are many goals set in agriculture such as creating a clean product. For that goal, it is not necessary to apply IT. However, IT will help agriculture to increase production efficiency and clear traceability; Technology can be used to acknowledge when to apply fertilizer, where to apply pesticides ... 

In the world, this is called precision agriculture because it has the ability to take care of each plant. Of course, humans can completely do it but it will take a lot of effort. We have to apply technology to solve this job. In order to do that, sensors, image processing technology, drones or self-propelled robots must be put into the field to detect pests, pesticides and plant care...

Besides, technology can be applied to trace agricultural products. For example, we can trace the origins when planting dragon fruit from fertilizing, spraying, harvesting, etc. Even when customers place an order to farmers, they would know the process of planting, caring and quality of this product with a high level of trust. Thus, each type of agricultural product has a different application of technology.

Mr. Tran Huu Quyen analyzed: "In the market, there are some views assuming that smart agriculture is membrane house or greenhouse ... In my point of view, it is more about planting techniques rather than applying technology in agriculture to increase the efficiency and transparency of the origin to produce good quality products. VNPT Technology only introduces technological infrastructure into agriculture to help reducing labor to increase efficiency".

CEO of VNPT Technology affirmed that agriculture still needs experts to come up with methods to plant and care for crops and animals. Technology plays a role of supporting farmers and agricultural experts to increase efficiency. As such, there should be a system that includes data on crop and animal care, which is constantly updated by experts. Then, using artificial intelligence to learn this knowledge system, analysing the data and giving recommendation to the farmers. This is exactly the way which many technology companies around the world are applying to different areas of life.

Find a technology application model aimed at the whole population

Sharing about the goal of putting technology into agriculture, Mr. Quyen said that VNPT Technology wants to put technology into agriculture not only at the membrane house and greenhouses because it costs a lot to deploy in wide area. VNPT Technology wants to find and introduce a technology model aimed at the entire population.

"In Japan, tap water is installed in each rice field and pumped automatically, but it will take a long time for us to do so. Therefore, technology companies along with scientists need to research and create a model that is appropriate for the situation in Vietnam because we are not able to follow modern models abroad. However, government support is also a must. Dragon fruit is a kind of crops which bring high export value, so we determined to cooperate with dragon fruit farmers to come up with a suitable model", Mr. Tran Huu Quyen said.

Answering the question why VNPT Technology has built membrane houses for agriculture? Mr. Tran Huu Quyen said that VNPT Technology invested in membrane houses as a type of laboratory to create an environment for researching and bring technology into agriculture. This solution of VNPT Technology has been applied practically in many places, such as Delco Bac Ninh farm. At the same time, VNPT Technology has also built a membrane area on their campus at the No. 2 electronics factory in Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park, applying the smart agricultural solution developed by the company into different kinds of plants.

Membrane area of VNPT Technology has many kinds of plants such as melon, vegetables, spinach, lettuce ... and is expected to add some new plants in the near future. In the process of farming, VNPT Technology fully applies the application of smart agricultural solutions such as irrigation systems, automatic lighting, humidity and pH measurement... The entire growth of plants and operations of automatic systems are closely monitored for optimal improvement; at the same time adding necessary features and systems in the process of actual cultivation, aiming to complete the company's smart agricultural solution.

CEO of VNPT Technology said that VNPT is looking for many partners working in the field of cultivation and husbandry to cooperate building technology application models, then replicate into the society.