Ham Kiem commune, Lam Dong province with more than 3,200ha of dragon fruit is entering the peak of the Tet crop. Dragon fruit gardens stretch with many technical equipment and technology services, helping gardeners reduce costs, improve efficiency and be more proactive in production.
In recent years, the application of water-saving irrigation systems has become popular in Ham Kiem. Many gardens apply local spray irrigation, drip irrigation, drip irrigation combined with fertilization, both saving water and ensuring nutrients for plants.
At the same time, farmers boldly invest in energy-saving compact bulbs, replacing previous high-capacity bulbs to reduce electricity costs during off-season flower blooming processing lights.
Many gardeners also use electric sprayers, install garden surveillance cameras, automatic shut-off systems with just one operation on the phone. Devices once considered "luxury" are now gradually becoming familiar tools in dragon fruit production in the locality.
Along with the need to apply technology, production support services have been formed in Ham Kiem commune. In Van Phong village alone, there are currently about 5 spots for renting light bulbs and surveillance cameras to serve the electricity season.
The price is assessed as suitable for farmers' abilities: 140 VND/day for a lamp (4W, 9W type) and 800,000 VND/phase for a camera, including guarding labor. Thanks to that, many households do not have to invest heavily initially but can still access new technology.
Mr. Mai Hoang - Owner of a facility renting cameras to monitor dragon fruit gardens - said that gardeners often rent cameras to monitor nighttime lighting, limit theft and technical incidents.
My side arranges 24/24 supervision personnel, combined with night patrol teams. When any unusual signs are detected, we will immediately notify the team to inspect and broadcast warnings," Mr. Hoang said.
According to him, the biggest difficulty currently is that some gardens are far from residential areas, 4G signal is still weak, causing data transmitted to the monitoring room to be sometimes interrupted.
Another new point is the remote shut-off control service. With a cost of only about 300,000 VND/phase, gardeners can proactively turn on and off the light bulb system with their phones, reducing the risk of forgetting to turn off the power, and reducing electricity costs.
Competition between services makes quality increasingly improved, prices increasingly reasonable, contributing to promoting the modernization of agricultural production in the locality.
According to the Chairman of Ham Kiem Commune People's Committee, dragon fruit is the main crop of the commune, so the application of science and technology is identified as a long-term direction.
The good news is that people actively access new technologies, thereby improving the quality of dragon fruit and production efficiency. This is also the basis for the locality to call on businesses to export and expand markets," Mr. Thi said.
Over the past time, many promotional activities have also been implemented in parallel with production. The dragon fruit selling livestream program on Tiktok has created a positive effect, opening up new consumption channels in the context of increasingly developing e-commerce.
Entering the Tet season, Ham Kiem dragon fruit gardens are not only brightly lit by electric lights but also modern with technology, services and market thinking going hand in hand. This is considered the foundation for dragon fruit to increase value, stabilize output and better adapt to market fluctuations in the coming time.
