The programme aims to help farmers access new knowledge to apply in production, improve productivity and product quality, and connect and expand consumption markets.
From 2021 to 2023, many households in localities such as Ha Noi, Son La, and Hung Yen benefited from the Central Agricultural Extension project through the implementation of high-quality vegetable production models applying information technology to connect supply and demand in some northern provinces.
As the project manager, Doctor Do Van Ngoc, Deputy Director of the Centre for Technology Transfer and Agricultural Extension (Viet Nam Academy of Agricultural Sciences), said: “After three years of implementation, the project has established 55 hectares of high-quality commercial vegetable production chains with 18 models and 698 participating households. The project has built a management portal connecting supply and demand, including a main website and two applications running on iOS and Android platforms, helping customers access information and monitor production, processing, packaging, and signing product consumption contracts.
“Statistics show that the average productivity of models in the project all met or exceeded the set targets. Specifically, the average productivity of melon was 33.8 tons/ha, mustard greens 25.2 tons/ha, and tomatoes 59.3 tons/ha. The products had attractive appearance, good quality, and ensured food hygiene. The models generated higher economic efficiency compared to non-model production. Specifically, melon models were 30.6% higher, mustard greens 33.4% higher, and tomatoes 22.4% higher.”
For over a month now, since piloting the intensive white leg shrimp farming model applying digital technology, emission reduction, and product consumption implemented by the National Agricultural Extension Centre in Thanh Hoa Province, certain results have been achieved.
Vu Van Ha, Deputy Director of Thanh Hoa Agricultural Extension Centre, said: “The model is implemented on an area of 2 hectares, applying environmental monitoring systems in the ponds to track temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH, helping farmers better manage water quality and save costs. Thanks to applying digital transformation, investment has been optimised, labour costs have been reduced, and the shrimp are growing well.”
According to the National Agricultural Extension Centre, digital transformation helps apply information technology to innovate forms, develop digital agricultural extension, and build digital services. The goal is to gradually shift traditional agricultural extension activities to a digital environment, improving activity efficiency, enhancing connectivity, and sharing information.
Le Quoc Thanh, Director of the National Agricultural Extension Centre, said: “To implement digital transformation in agricultural extension, the centre has started developing a plan based on three pillars: digital communication; digital training and capacity building; and digital management of agricultural extension activities. Therefore, agricultural extension officers must always understand their position and role and have sufficient knowledge of digital transformation to guide and support farmers in agricultural production.”
Since 2021, the centre has developed a digital transformation project in agricultural extension for the 2021–2025 period, with an initial success being the launch of the Green Agricultural Extension app, creating an effective, familiar, and user-friendly communication channel for farmers. Using this app, farmers with questions about cultivation techniques can get specific advice from experts in a digital environment.
So far, the National Agricultural Extension Centre has been building a digital agricultural extension database, including software to centrally manage data serving direction, operation, and project progress tracking; and organising workshops combining in-person and online formats to attract many participants. Meanwhile, the Viet Nam Agricultural Extension website and newsletter have opened a digital transformation section and posted much technical guidance and agricultural activity information for people to learn and apply in practice. The agricultural extension market platform helps localities have an additional information channel to connect, promote, and consume products.
Additionally, the centre is strengthening digital communication to enable people to access necessary content anytime, anywhere on the internet, organising training on using agricultural extension activity management software. This is a digital management tool developed to improve operational efficiency, supervise, and compile information from the central to grassroots levels. The software is designed to digitise the entire agricultural extension management cycle, from planning, task allocation, and progress monitoring to summarising and reporting results; it is also an important foundation to build a professional, comprehensive agricultural extension system to effectively serve the data-based management of programmes and projects.
Assessing the effectiveness of digital transformation in agricultural extension, Do Phan Tuan, Head of the Information and Communication Department (National Agricultural Extension Centre), emphasised: “Recently, digital transformation has helped staff access new information and knowledge, improving their consulting capacity and supporting farmers more effectively through digital documents and social networks. Moreover, it has contributed to helping many agricultural extension projects optimise resources, reduce climate change damage, increase product productivity and quality, expand consumption markets, and connect product purchasing.”
To date, the centre has implemented about 20 central agricultural extension projects applying high technology and digital transformation. Nevertheless, the application of digital transformation in agriculture, especially in agricultural extension, still faces many difficulties due to the limited awareness of farmers and infrastructure being underdeveloped for the application of new technologies.
Therefore, in the coming time, the National Agricultural Extension Centre needs to build a centralised data system ensuring connectivity, interoperability, sharing, and synchronisation from the central to local levels; build a digital agricultural extension system to effectively connect with the entire agricultural extension system.
Accordingly, from now until 2027, efforts will focus on developing software and data solutions serving direction and management and piloting the development of digital agricultural extension services; developing and operating criteria and tools to measure the effectiveness of agricultural extension activities through the digital environment; raising awareness and capacity to strive for 100% of staff at all levels to apply digital tools in agricultural extension activities.
