• 16 Aug 2022
• 2022

Technology Application Development In Agriculture In Dong Nai Province – Part 2: Solutions

Agriculture, only accounting for nearly 6% of Dong Nai’s GDP, is the backbone of the province’s economy, not only creating a volume of products to satisfy the needs of millions of people in the Province and the Southeast region but also contributing to exports, especially in the context that the Covid epidemic has been raging, pushing back Vietnamese growth rate and many countries around the world, the province’s agriculture still grows although the speed is not high. Dong Nai’s agriculture can grow faster and more efficiently if the province increases the application of high technology, including 4.0 technology. In part 2 of this article, the authors make recommendations on the application of 4.0 technology in agriculture in Dong Nai Province.

In accordance with the practical situation studied and analyzed in part 1 of the article, the authors offer solutions and recommendations to promote the development of 4.0 technology in agriculture in Dong Nai Province. Specifically:

Recommendations towards the Provincial People’s Committee and agricultural management levels in Dong Nai Province

• Dong Nai Province proactively develops a strategy to promote the development of 4.0 technology in the Province, including the content of expanding, in width and depth, the application of 4.0 technology in agriculture listed as: cultivation, livestock farming, processing and E-commerce of agricultural products. The targets of the strategy must be included in the action plan of the People’s Committee and the Provincial People’s Council.
• Dong Nai Provincial People’s Committee needs to continue to have policies to encourage organizations and individuals to mobilize resources to create breakthroughs in agricultural 4.0 application in agricultural products that are considered as key areas of the Province. It should be noted that it is necessary to pay attention to the development of traditional agriculture in the organic direction, with a brand that has been accepted by the market.
• The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) of the Province needs to closely follow the Prime Minister’s Directive No. 16/CT-TTg dated May 4, 2017 regarding the strengthening the capacity to approach the Public Revolution of Industry 4.0 as a basis for building a strategy to increase the application of 4.0 technology in businesses, farms, households... in farming, animal husbandry, aquaculture... in Dong Nai Province.
• The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development or the Department of Science and Technology (Department of Science and Technology) builds an Advisory Council for 4.0 industry development as well as supports businesses to promote the Industry 4.0 application; at the same time, helping to remove difficulties related to not only implementation techniques but also difficulties concerning economic-financial mechanisms and policies related to supporting enterprises to deploy 4.0 technology application.
• Appreciating the training of human resources, especially high-quality human resources, actively promotes the agriculture 4.0 application in Dong Nai Province. Focusing on fostering 4.0 knowledge and skills for the workforce in agriculture, helping them to apply 4.0 technologies from simple to complex in their production and business.
• Policies to attract FDI and domestic investment related to high-tech agriculture and to expand international cooperation help support development acceleration of agriculture 4.0 in Dong Nai Province.
• The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) should invest in big data on agriculture: cultivation, livestock, fisheries, processing, trade, experience in Industry 4.0 development domestic and abroad related to the agricultural products which are provided free of charge to farmers, agricultural enterprises. The knowledge of information in big data helps farmers and businesses to have thinking, knowledge, and experience within Industry 4.0 implementation.
• Promoting the E-commerce development, applying 4.0 technology in logistics activities to support agricultural products of the Province to effectively access domestic and foreign markets. Being interested in applying 4.0 technology in all agricultural product value chains: production, harvesting, preservation, transportation, trade and so on.
• The impact of the Covid-19 epidemic has affected the traditional activities of trading, distributing and exporting agricultural products of Dong Nai’s farms and business establishments. In the current conditions, the distribution and the consumption of agricultural products on E-commerce platforms (E-commerce) are considered as one of the important and effective solutions in the agricultural product consumption. Dong Nai Province should be more proactive, the Provincial Department of Industry and Trade cooperates with large E-commerce platforms listed as Tiki deploying pilot models of activities to support businesses, especially small and medium agricultural enterprises, transforming the model from online sales, gradually developing stores on Tiki. At the same time, Tiki plans to implement diverse other activities related to E-commerce in Dong Nai listed as: expanding warehouses; developing and expanding distribution system, delivery and so on.
• The Department of Industry and Trade in collaboration with Dong Nai Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will soon organize training courses to train farmers and ranchers in product promotion skills, livestream sales skills, and goods-introducing skill on the market. E-commerce platforms (these are applications of 4.0 technology); at the same time, supporting the application of a traceability system for agricultural products in order to create conditions for farmers to directly contact customers, to understand for better grasp of market trends and requirements, from which, production will be organized effectively, meeting consumer demand.
• Dong Nai Province should have an investment strategy for infrastructure: network connection, transportation, irrigation, support for human resource development, speeding up the digitization of public administrative services, etc. promoting the 4.0 revolution in the Province’s economic sectors, including agriculture.

The above recommendations of the research team are consistent with the survey results of the enterprises, cooperative units, and agricultural farms in Dong Nai Province that have been expecting the aspiration from state management levels to support them in the Industry 4.0 application (Table 6).

Table 6: Evaluation of enterprises’ implementation capacity towards Industry 4.0 solutions (Unit: Enterprise)

Source: Survey results of agricultural enterprises in Dong Nai 2021

The survey results shown in Table 6 show that from 45% to 62% of businesses are capable of implementing 4.0 Industry solutions at their units but need more support from the local authorities or the State government at the Central and State levels in terms of the solution implementation on the 4.0 Industry 4.0 application of the unit. The issues that businesses are interested in are: building new ways of exchanging information with customers (153 enterprises); restructuring, improving labor quality, developing new products and services in terms of 4.0 Industry direction (149 enterprises), or investment in new IT systems (148 enterprises), or building new business strategic models (143 enterprises). This is a large number of businesses that need support, not to mention the number of businesses that are completely unable to do so even though they completely need to implement these so as to develop their production and business and to increase their competitiveness in the market.

Recommendations towards agricultural enterprises in Dong Nai Province

• Farmers and administrators themselves must raise awareness of the actual benefits upon applying 4.0 Industry in their production and business activities because only the right awareness will have the motivation to deploy and determined towards investment in the 4.0 Industry application.
• Developing a strategy (plan) to deploy 4.0 Industry application, specifying the implementation plan for each year: types of Industry 4.0 to be deployed, investment capital, human resources, and conditions for successful implementation.
• Determining the correct priority order towards 4.0 technology that will be used in enterprises, at which stage? (Supply management; Warehouse management; Human resource management; Sales; Marketing; Customer communication; Production and farming management: farming, soil; Water analysis, irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, harvesting, product traceability and so on).
• Searching for information, researching experiences through books, big data, field trips to learn knowledge and experience in applying 4.0 technology to successfully deploy in your business.
• Developing a plan to recruit and to train human resources for the 4.0 Industry implementation at their agricultural production and business establishments. In addition, finding information related to the technical consulting system to deploy 4.0 technology (service fee paid on a case-by-case basis).
• Enterprises focus on building the way of link chain models that fully apply technologies and smart devices in production - processing - consumption of agricultural products.
• Taking advantage of the support from the Central State and Dong Nai Province in the application of 4.0 Industry, for example: (1) The Trade Promotion Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) in collaboration with Vietnam Post Corporation (Viet Nam Post) towards implementing a program to support farmers and ranchers across the country to sell safe agricultural products, agricultural products and food in the form of online (livestream); (2) Dong Nai Department of Industry and Trade has supported and organized the training programs on management, operation maintenance as well as updated images and product information on the website for 5 units, including businesses and agencies receiving the Province’s OCOP-certified product manufacturing facility (one product per commune program); and in the coming year 2021-2025, there will be a diversity of similar support programs; (3) The majority of agricultural enterprises are small and medium-sized enterprises; therefore, it is necessary to learn to benefit from the Decision of Dong Nai People’s Committee No. 23/2021/QD-UBND “Project on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in the early stages within the 2021-2025 period in Dong Nai Province” having been effective since 6/2021.

Dong Nai Province is a large industrial Province not only of the Southern Provinces but also in the whole country. It should be concluded that 4.0 technology development promotion in agriculture will help Dong Nai Province develop comprehensively and sustainably in addition to the improvement in local people’s lives.

Please refer to the full research Development of Industry 4.0 Technology Application in Agriculture in Dong Nai Province here. Author group: Prof. Dr. Võ Thanh Thu – Faculty of International Business–Marketing, UEH School of Business; MSc. Phạm Quang Văn – Lecturer from Industry University, HCMC.

This writing is in series of spreading research and applied knowledge from UEH with “Research Contribution For All – Nghiên Cứu Vì Cộng Đồng” message, UEH would like to invite readers to follow Newsletter ECONOMY NO #54 “Solutions for digitalization implementation in small and medium-sized enterprises in Viet Nam”.

News, photos: Author group, UEH Department of Marketing – Communication