Hau Giang attracts investment through digital transformation

Four Pillars of economic development 

According to the Vice Chairman of Hau Giang Provincial People's Council Vo Thi My Trang, Hau Giang is a purely agricultural province. The province identified agriculture as one of the four important pillars of economic development. In particular, the digital transformation of the agricultural sector plays a particularly important role in promoting the restructuring of the agricultural sector.

Ms Vo Thi My Trang said that over the past time, Hau Giang province has focused on investing and building a foundation to serve digital transformation. As a result, the information technology infrastructure, online conferencing system and shared software are operating effectively. Especially, the online Public Service Portal of the province is being used more and more effectively. This includes the Datacenter, Monitoring Center, smart city management, safety monitoring system, and stable network security...

Particularly in the agricultural sector, the province is focusing on developing an integrated platform and a digital data platform, on that basis, developing priority digital services and applications. Typical examples are database information systems for cultivation, husbandry, aquaculture, production environment monitoring applications, agricultural product quality management, digital transformation in the development of the One Commune One Product (OCOP) program, solutions for forest fire monitoring based on remote sensing mapping technology...

Director of the Hau Giang Department of MARD, Mr Ngo Minh Long, said that in parallel with digital transformation in agriculture, the unit is focusing on developing high-tech agriculture in the direction of high-tech agriculture, focusing on smart and clean agriculture, increasing the proportion of digital agriculture in the economy. Focus on building big data systems of the industry such as land, crops, livestock and fisheries. Building an integrated observation and monitoring network in the air and on the ground for agricultural activities. Promote the provision of information on the environment, weather, and soil quality for farmers to improve productivity and crop quality.

Applying digital technology to automate production and business processes. Managing and monitoring the origin and supply chain of products, ensuring fast, transparent, accurate, safe, and food hygiene. Aiming towards building advanced agriculture with high productivity, good quality, and meeting quality standards based on the application of high technologies in agriculture. Connecting farmers through digital tools to support production activities. Enhancing utilities, warning, forecasting and optimizing activities of state management agencies in agriculture-related specialities through a shared database system. Closely connecting authorities, people and businesses in the development, promotion and linkage of agricultural supply chains. Protecting and enhancing the brand name of Hau Giang agricultural products.

As a unit participating in digital transformation and application of high technology in production a few years ago, Thuan Phat Melon Cooperative (Binh Thanh commune, Phung Hiep district) has achieved many successes. Mr. Vo Van Trung, Director of Thuan Phat Cantaloupe Cooperative said, with the support of the agricultural sector, since 2017, he has boldly invested hundreds of millions of VND to implement the greenhouse melon growing model according to Israeli irrigation technology. The melon garden is equipped with a nutrient control system to take care of favourable growth. With just a smartphone, you can manage the growth and development of the whole garden wherever you are.

The model of growing cantaloupe using high technology brings good economic efficiency, and the number of cooperative members participating in the cooperative has also increased. Currently the cooperative has 30 members and the net house area has expanded to 4 ha. Every year, Thuan Phat Melon Cooperative produces and supplies hundreds of tons of commercial cantaloupe, earning billions of VND in profit. 

Director Vo Van Trung said: “Since implementing digital transformation in agriculture, we have greatly reduced production costs and improved product quality. The profits also increase. We are cooperating with farmers to expand the production area according to the GlobalGAP process and sell products for farmers. In the coming time, the products made by Thuan Phat Melon Cooperative serve both domestic consumption and also for export.

Building a digital transformation platform

VNPT Hau Giang is a unit participating in digital transformation in the fields of agriculture, natural resources and environment. Accordingly, this unit proposes a roadmap to deploy the agricultural information system in the period of 2022 - 2025 in the province, including 3 phases. Phase 1 (in 2022) deploys the crop and livestock industry database, ready to connect to the industry database. Phase 2 (in 2023) deploys fisheries and forestry databases, deploys digital maps (GIS) for a number of agricultural sectors. Phase 3 (2024 - 2025) deploys the database of the remaining industries, completes the digital map of the agricultural sector, deploys the grant and management of planting area codes, and builds an intelligent monitoring and control centre (IOC)…

Performing the task of digital transformation, the Hau Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has been applying digital technology to many agricultural fields of the province and has achieved positive results. Mr. Ngo Minh Long, Director of the Hau Giang Department of MARD, said that in the orientation to implement digitalization for agriculture in the period of 2021 - 2025, the provincial agricultural sector will focus on building a digitized map of the industry's information database, applying WebGIS application to build an online agricultural management system. Equipped with software to promote Hau Giang agro-products and OCOP products, create a number of smart agricultural models in the fields of cultivation and animal husbandry...

Specifically, the province has built and put into operation the trading floor and traceability "Hau Giang Agricultural Products" with the domain name: https://nongsanaugiang.com.vn, the mobile app is Agri360. The purpose of this "Exchange and traceability platform" serves Hau Giang farmers themselves, helping farmers have favourable conditions to apply blockchain technology in the traceability of agricultural products. Organizations and individuals can register their own accounts on Hau Giang Agricultural Products Page, record electronic diaries in operation and production, and generate codes to trace the origin of their agro-products via QR-Code. Putting products on the exchange to promote, increase opportunities to reach businesses buying products...

Hau Giang Department of MARD in collaboration with the Research Institute of Space and Underwater Technology (Hanoi University of Science and Technology) piloted Autotimelapse technology in traceability of some agricultural products in Hau Giang. Up to now, 5 sites have been implemented in the whole province. Autotimelapse in agriculture is a set of smart agricultural management solutions, through short videos showing all the development stages of crops and livestock. This system not only reports the image of the growing process, but also displays and analyzes the growth indicators of plants and animals, and notices the change in the environment.

Up to now, thousands of organizations and individuals have registered to use the trading platform "Hau Giang Agricultural Products". There are more than 300 agro-products, products of organizations and individuals inside and outside the province participating on the floor, solving the problem of traceability of agro-products, increasing access to businesses and contributing to solving output problems of farmers' agro-products", Director of Hau Giang Department of MARD, Mr. Ngo Minh Long said.