Mr Pham Quoc Liem: 'School in farm' spreads agriculture beauty

Encourage and retain

Since 2009, Unifarm has identified hi-tech agriculture as a very new field in Vietnam. In order to successfully deploy and compete with other countries in the world, Vietnam must have a team of people who are truly dedicated and have the ability to compete at a global level.

Looking at the situation of human training at the time, many agricultural graduates in Vietnam still could not meet the competing conditions. This includes professional qualifications, management capacity and soft skills (especially foreign language proficiency).

Therefore, Unifarm determined to organize its training of human resources in agriculture for its unit. Consequently, contributing to the schools in training and developing human resources for the needs of the entire agricultural sector in Vietnam. Unifarm's initiatives below were born from that time.

The "school in farm" initiative is what Unifarm internally calls the training program at Unifarm's agricultural projects, with a force of experts and training participants.

To further promote this work, with more than 14 years of experience in agricultural technology and contribute to human resource training for Vietnam's agricultural sector, Mr. Pham Quoc Liem made 2 recommendations.

Firstly, according to Mr. Liem, the State needs to have preferential policies, support, reward and encourage enterprises to invest in activities of training, transferring and developing human resources for their enterprises in particular and for Vietnam's agricultural industry in general.

The second recommendation of the head of Unifarm is that the State and local authorities have policies to attract, retain, reward, and encourage the team of experts (especially foreign experts) to work on agricultural projects, thereby, contributing to the training of human resources in agriculture for the locality.

The effect of internal human resources training

Since 2009, Unifarm has invited a leading Israeli agricultural expert with more than 40 years of experience in high-tech agriculture to play the role of Technical Director of Unifarm, working with experts from Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Thailand on Unifarm's projects.

One of the Vietnamese scientists participating with Unifarm in this program is Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Minh Chau, Former Director of the Southern Horticultural Research Institute.

All of the above experts, in addition to being in charge of specific areas of expertise at Unifarm, also conduct concurrent training for young Vietnamese engineers and other agricultural sectors.

In addition, Unifarm also cooperates with many scientists and lecturers from universities such as Nong Lam University-Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho University, Southern Horticultural Research Institute, and University of Social Sciences and Humanities of Ho Chi Minh City to train both professional knowledge, management skills and soft skills for the personnel.

Internally, up to now, Unifarm has formed a team of Vietnamese technical staff including many young people who can approach the world level and are enthusiastic about developing high-tech agriculture in Vietnam. 

Currently, all technical issues at Unifarm's farms as well as continuous training of the successor force and transfer technology to the outside are being handled by this new generation of agricultural experts.

Socially, Unifarm defines investment in agriculture not to compete or replace the role of farmers but to create appropriate market and supply chain models and platforms, which will then be transferred and replicated to businesses, cooperatives and farmers.

From Unifarm's training and technology transfer programs, Up to now, many companies, farms and households have risen to become prestigious units in the industry. The banana farm of old farmer Vo Quan Huy in Long An, who is called the "banana king" by the media, is a prime example.

Besides the initiative of "school in farm", from 2022, Unifarm also sponsors several schools to implement the "farm in school" model right on the academy ground. This is so that teachers and students have the opportunity to practice directly under the guidance of experts from Unifarm. The first unit funded by Unifarm for this model is Binh Duong Agricultural and Forestry Intermediate School with the subjects being students and trainees at the school.

In 2023, Unifarm plans to continue implementing the "farm on campus" model at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Ho Chi Minh City. This is so that students who do not choose agriculture when entering university can re-evaluate the career and personal development opportunities that agriculture can bring.

"Farm in school" is a place for teachers and students to practice directly under the guidance of Unifarm teachers and experts, the goal is to help students have the experience available right after graduation. This is also a place to spread the beauty and good values that the agricultural industry brings to students.

The application of high technology in the cultivation and plant protection industry at the Agricultural and Forestry Intermediate School has always been favoured by large enterprises with reputable companions from the stage of program development, training, internship and employment

Agricultural Knowledge Tourism Initiative

In 2023, Unifarm Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Institute of Circular Economy Development (under Ho Chi Minh City National University) signed a cooperation agreement on implementing a project to develop tourism activities associated with high-tech agriculture and circular economy at Unifarm's An Thai Hi-tech Agricultural Park.

This cooperation is a step towards a more formal and methodical implementation of efforts to attract human resources into the agricultural sector which Unifarm has been doing for many years.

Unifarm - full name is U&I Agriculture Joint Stock Company - started investing in high-tech agriculture in 2009 with the project of An Thai High-tech Agriculture Park, with an area of 411 ha in An Thai commune, Phu Giao district, Binh Duong province. In more than 14 years of operation, Unifarm has built many crop models with high economic value, suitable markets and replicable for farmers. For example: the model of growing melons in Israeli technology greenhouses with a revenue of more than VND 2 billion/ha/year (implemented since 2010); The model of growing old-fashioned bananas for export to Korea and Japan generates revenue from VND 500 million/ha/year (implemented since 2011).

Since 2017, Unifarm has continued to invest in a banana export project with a project scale of more than 1,200 ha in the Dau Tieng district, Binh Duong; owns a company specializing in the research and production of seedlings in Long An with the initial results of researching and selecting banana varieties that are resistant to Panama disease with a survival rate of up to 95% in this area with a history of infection. Currently, the above banana variety has been approved by Dole experts (the world's number one banana corporation), and evaluated as the commercial banana variety with the best disease-resistance rate compared to other disease-resistant banana varieties that this group currently owns. 

In addition to investing in its agricultural projects, Unifarm also consults transfer technology, and engages in off-take for many other stakeholders, from small-scale production farmers to large companies with farm sizes up to several thousand ha at home and abroad.

These initial achievements of Unifarm come from: (1) identifying the right product for market demand; (2) production orientation according to international standards for all products; (3) selection of suitable farming technology and (4) implementing a program to attract, training and developing human resources for Unifarm in particular and for the needs of the agricultural industry in general.