'Smart durian' Ecofarm and the story of export links

Take care of the whole garden through a single smartphone’s touch

As a province located in the southern critical economic region, besides inheriting synchronous infrastructure and convenient transportation, Binh Phuoc is also blessed with a mild climate and fertile soil favorable for fruit tree development, including durian trees.

Although durian trees have only been developed in recent years, thanks to the experience of previous localities and the active application of technical advances to production, durian is gradually asserting its taste on this rich red basalt land. In particular, the Plant Protection Department has completed the procedures for the official export of durian to China and is waiting for the protocol's approval date. Local durian growers are even more motivated by this information.

Arriving at the Gia Bao Durian Ecofarm of Mr. Nguyen Minh Hieu in Phuoc Tin commune (Phuoc Long town), our eyes caught a system of drip irrigation pipes that continuously "released" water, irrigating thousands of durian trees. There were also modern automatic lawn mowers and spray trucks imported from Korea winding around each root to handle flowering and fruiting techniques for Ri6, Monthong, and Musang King durian gardens to catch the official export to China.

Taking a short break, Mr. Nguyen Minh Hieu said that in the hope of bringing products abroad, while complying with the regulations, his family and the gardeners here also invested in irrigation and autonomous medicine spraying systems. These systems lower costs while saving health and the environment.

In particular, Mr. Hieu boasted: “Just flicking a fingertip on the smartphone will automatically help me take care of the garden. Every morning, I can sit comfortably at a small table by the window overlooking the garden, having breakfast while chatting with my wife and children and watching the durian garden”.

According to Mr. Hieu, with more than 10 ha of VietGAP durian ready for harvesting, he would not be able to handle the enormous amount of work without modern and high-tech mechanized means of production. The farm is located in Phuoc Long Town, the most vibrant town in Binh Phuoc, most people are in the service industry, and workers are not familiar with agriculture, not to mention they are focused on cashew processing factories.

Currently, on average, Hieu invests more than VND100 million/ha, in return, he saves a lot of labor and controls the watering and medicine spraying of plants. Additionally, since the application of this technical model, durian garden productivity has also increased by about 30%. In particular, the durians produced beautiful and consistent fruit, and the product quality improved due to moderation and seasonality.

“With the advanced application, if done manually, it would take a whole day, currently, it only takes 2-3 hours. The leftover tasks after liberating labor are to pay attention to the condition of the trees and spend time visiting the trees in the garden to supervise diseases, find solutions in case the tree is sick and the fruits do not meet the desired standard", Mr. Hieu added. 

Not satisfied with the existing technical advances, with the information that durian is officially exported to China, Mr. Hieu is continuing to put the application of the internet of things (IoT) into production. The application is to minimize pesticides in cultivation, protect public health, and maintain the balance of the garden ecosystem. Although the input cost is higher than the traditional method, the investment becomes a strength when finding markets through digital technology. 

To share his durian production experience, Mr. Hieu is also one of the founding members of Binh Phuoc Digital Agriculture Cooperative and the Deputy Director of the cooperative.

According to Mr. Pham Viet Thuat, Chairman of Phuoc Tin Commune People's Committee, the locality has the largest durian area in the province. Recently, some households are also starting to experiment with smart farming methods to save labor, even though the initial cost to design investment techniques is quite expensive. 

“There is currently labor shortage, agricultural production materials increased, and the unstable of the domestic market. High-tech application production according to standards for official export is the only way to increase the value of agro-products in general and local durian in particular.

Currently, in the locality, there are many durian farm models applying mechanization and high technology to production. Gia Bao Ecofarm is a pioneer model and has achieved certain successes. This is a model that growers should understand to reduce production costs and increase profits. We will replicate this model soon,” Mr.Thuat emphasized.

Linking and meeting export criteria

Along with the initiative of the people, with the potential advantages, Binh Phuoc attracts leading enterprises in the field of agriculture to invest, build linkages with the locality from production to consumption of products, meeting the standards and criteria for durian export. Loc Troi Group is a prime example.

Loc Troi Group has gathered nearly 20 durian growing households in Bu Dang and Hon Quan districts to associate durian production for export with a total area of 30ha since its initiation when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. 

Through the link, households are guided from the process of organically growing orchards to recording production records for traceability. Products manufactured following the process are purchased by Loc Troi Group with prices ranging from VND35,000 - 40,000/kg. This is very meaningful when this year's durian crop is falling and is only around VND30,000/kg.

Mr. Nguyen Van Doan, technical officer in charge of fruit trees in the Southeast region of Loc Troi Group, said that besides the rice-linked chain that has affirmed its prestige and brand, the Group is expanding to other fruit trees, including durian trees.

Before implementing in Binh Phuoc, the Group was very successful with this linkage model in the Central Highlands, the Mekong Delta, and some other provinces in the Southeast region such as Tay Ninh and Dong Nai. After the chain of links in Hon Quan and Bu Dang has been successful, Loc Troi will continue to support farmers to build brands of agro-products if there is a need. At that time, agro-products will be elevated to a higher standard of production, meeting all market requirements.

“For the project of linking production on durian trees, people's durian gardens are currently available. We just need to pay attention to improving the soil, supplying materials for agricultural production, transferring farming processes to improve garden productivity, and at the same time supporting farmers to control pesticide residues and improve product quality.

Based on these initial results, the association model will be expanded by Loc Troi Group to other localities in the province. The Group will work with the locality to plan specialized cultivation areas, register planting area codes, traceability, and target markets. In particular, China is considered a potential market when exporting by official sugar, " Mr.Doan said.

According to Ms. Le Thi Anh Tuyet, Deputy Director of Binh Phuoc Department of MARD, each ha of durian cultivation in the locality brings in hundreds of millions of VND/year in profits for growers. This is the motivation for farmers to focus on production and develop the area in the direction of improving quality, meeting the requirements of enterprises and export markets, including China. Along with that, farmers can exploit the strength of spreading the crop, ensuring a year-round source of goods, as well as preliminarily processing, processing, and diversifying durian products. These will be integrated solutions to complete the value chain for this commodity, in which Vietnam has a lot of advantages.