Bringing digital agriculture to remote areas
With the advantage of being a key agricultural production region of the Central Highlands, Dak Lak is owning many high-value commodities such as coffee, durian, avocado, macadamia and many agricultural products serving the domestic market and export.
However, the process of transitioning to digital agriculture in the locality still faces many challenges. Many poor communes and ethnic minority areas still face difficulties in infrastructure, resources and the ability to apply science and technology to production.
However, practice shows that the deployment of digital agriculture in Dak Lak is a feasible direction if there is an appropriate roadmap, synchronous support policies and the participation of stakeholders in the value chain.
Dr. Tran Ngoc Thanh, Institute of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Central Highlands (Dong A University) and Mr. Nguyen Do Dung, General Director of ENFARM Agricultural Technology Company, said that the study of the role and application potential of digital agriculture and smart agriculture for socio-economic development in poor communes and ethnic minority areas of Dak Lak province is of great significance.
For these localities, digital agriculture is expected to create positive impacts in all three aspects of economy, society and environment. People have more opportunities to access new knowledge, improve production capacity, reduce costs, use resources effectively and gradually participate more deeply in the agricultural product value chain.
Dr. Tran Khai Thien (Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade) said that digital technologies are opening up important opportunities to improve productivity, management efficiency and competitiveness of Dak Lak's agricultural sector.
In the immediate future, the province needs to prioritize building planting area records for key industries such as coffee and durian; and at the same time deploy pilot models focusing on economically effective problems such as optimizing irrigation systems, forecasting yields, warning of pests and diseases, and supporting decision-making based on data.
When data is collected, standardized and exploited effectively, artificial intelligence applications will have conditions to promote practical value. Thereby, contributing to improving governance quality, increasing the value of agricultural products, and increasing adaptability to market fluctuations.
Identify sustainable direction
Mr. Luong Nguyen Minh Triet - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of Dak Lak Provincial Party Committee said that the province has a special strength in agriculture with many products that have established brands in the international market such as coffee, durian, avocado, macadamia...
However, to develop in the new stage, Dak Lak needs to strongly shift from traditional production to precision agricultural models.
According to the Secretary of the Dak Lak Provincial Party Committee, the province has issued 8 major problems on science, technology, innovation and digital transformation. Among them, the first problem is to develop the agricultural sector based on science, technology and digital transformation, in order to improve production value, build sustainable linkage chains and increase competitiveness for local agricultural products.
Along with developing digital agriculture, Dak Lak also orients the construction of a commune-level digital economy model suitable to the characteristics of rural areas and ethnic minority areas.
Digital transformation is only successful when no one is left behind. The digital economy must be formed from the grassroots level, in which it is necessary to take digital cooperatives as the core, and digital agriculture as the foundation. Applied technology must be simple and reasonably costing so that people can see, access and apply it to actual production," emphasized the Secretary of the Dak Lak Provincial Party Committee.
With the combination of agricultural potential, technology platform and the companionship of the government, Dak Lak is gradually moving towards the goal of bringing digital agriculture to remote and isolated areas, creating motivation for rural economic development and improving people's lives," added the Secretary of the Dak Lak Provincial Party Committee.