Farmers from Thang Loi Agricultural Service Cooperative (Dong Thap province) visit a pilot rice crop implementing the project of 1 million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice. (PHOTO: HUU NGHIA)

The program aims to help farmers access new knowledge to apply to production in order to improve productivity, product quality, and connect with and expand consumer markets.

From 2021-2023, many households in localities such as Hanoi, Son La, and Hung Yen benefited from the central agricultural extension project through a model of high-quality vegetable production applying information technology to connect supply and demand in some northern provinces.

Dr. Do Van Ngoc, Deputy Director of the Center for Technology Transfer and Agricultural Extension (Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences), and project leader, stated: “Over the past three years, the project has established 55 hectares of high-quality commercial vegetable production with 18 models and 698 participating households. The project has also developed a supply-demand management portal including a homepage and two applications running on iOS and Android platforms, helping customers access information and control the entire process from production to processing, packaging, and product sales contracts.”

Statistics show that the average productivity of the models in the project has met and exceeded the set targets. Specifically, the average productivity of fragrant melon production reached 33.8 tons/ha, cabbage 25.2 tons/ha, and tomatoes 59.3 tons/ha… The products have attractive packaging, good quality, and ensure food safety. The models yielded higher economic efficiency compared to production outside the models, specifically: fragrant melon model increased by 30.6%, cabbage by 33.4%, and tomatoes by 22.4%. For more than a month, since the implementation of the pilot model of intensive whiteleg shrimp farming using digital technology, reducing emissions and linking product consumption, implemented by the National Agricultural Extension Center in Thanh Hoa province, certain results have been achieved.

According to Vu Van Ha, Deputy Director of the Thanh Hoa Agricultural Extension Center: “The model, implemented on an area of ​​2 hectares, applies an environmental monitoring system in the pond to track temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH levels, helping farmers better manage water quality and save costs. Thanks to the application of digital transformation, investment is optimized, labor is reduced, and shrimp thrive.”

According to the National Center for Agricultural Extension, digital transformation helps apply information technology to innovate forms, develop digital agricultural extension, and build digital services. The goal is to gradually transform traditional agricultural extension activities into a digital environment, contributing to improved efficiency, enhanced connectivity, and information sharing.

According to Le Quoc Thanh, Director of the National Agricultural Extension Center: “To implement digital transformation in the agricultural extension sector, the center is developing a plan with three pillars: digital communication; digital training and education; and digital management of agricultural extension activities. Therefore, agricultural extension officers always recognize their position and role, as well as possessing sufficient knowledge about digital transformation to guide and support farmers in agricultural production.”

Since 2021, the center has been developing a digital transformation plan for agricultural extension activities for the period 2021-2025. Initial success has been the deployment of a green agricultural extension application (green agricultural extension app), creating an effective, accessible, and user-friendly communication channel. Using this app, farmers with questions about cultivation techniques can receive specific advice from experts in a digital environment.

To date,National Agricultural Extension CenterWe are building a digital agricultural extension database, which includes software to help manage data centrally for directing, managing, and monitoring the progress of projects; organizing workshops in a hybrid format (in-person and online) attracting many participants; the Vietnam Agricultural Extension website and newsletter also have a section on digital transformation and publish a lot of information on technical guidance and agricultural activities for people to learn and apply in practice. The agricultural extension market page helps localities have an additional channel for connecting, promoting, and selling products.

In addition, the center also strengthens digital communication to facilitate people's access to necessary content anytime, anywhere on the internet; and organizes training on the use of agricultural extension management software. This is a digital management tool built and developed with the goal of improving the efficiency of operation, supervision, and information aggregation from the central to the grassroots level. The software is designed to digitize the entire agricultural extension management cycle, from planning, task allocation, progress monitoring to aggregation and reporting of results; it is also an important foundation for building a professional, comprehensive agricultural extension system that effectively serves the database of programs and projects.

Evaluation of effectiveness fromDigital transformation in agricultural extensionAccording to Do Phan Tuan, Head of the Information and Communication Department (National Agricultural Extension Center), “In recent times, digital transformation has helped officials access new information and knowledge, and improve their capacity to advise and support farmers more effectively through digital documents and social media. Furthermore, it has contributed to optimizing resources in many agricultural extension projects, reducing losses due to climate change, increasing productivity and product quality, expanding markets, and connecting product distribution channels.”

To date, the center has implemented approximately 20 central-level agricultural extension projects that utilize high technology and digital transformation. However, the application of digital transformation in agriculture in general, and agricultural extension activities in particular, still faces many difficulties due to limited awareness among farmers; and the infrastructure for developing and applying new technologies is not yet synchronized…

Therefore, in the coming period, the National Agricultural Extension Center needs to build a centralized data system, ensuring connectivity, interoperability, sharing, and synchronization from the central to local levels; and build a digital agricultural extension system to effectively connect with the entire agricultural extension system.

Accordingly, from now until 2027, the focus will be on developing software and data solutions to support management and direction, and piloting the development of digital agricultural extension services; building and operating criteria and tools to measure the effectiveness of agricultural extension activities through the digital environment; and raising awareness and capacity to strive for 100% of officials at all levels to apply digital tools in agricultural extension activities…