Science, technology and innovation - the resilience of high-tech agriculture

Morning of May 20, Binh Duong provincial Department of Science and Technology in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and University of Social Sciences and Humanities held a workshop on "Science, technology and innovation - the resilience of high-tech agriculture in Binh Duong province". Attending the event was Assoc. Prof. Dr. Huynh Thanh Dat, Member of the CPV Central Committee, Minister of Science and Technology; Mr. Vu Hai Quan, Member of the CPV Central Committee, Director of Vietnam National University of Ho Chi Minh city; Mr. Nguyen Van Loi, Member of the CPV Central Committee, Secretary of Binh Duong provincial Party Committee, Head of the provincial National Assembly Delegation; Mr. Nguyen Hoang Thao, Standing Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee; Mr. Vo Van Minh, Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the provincial People's Committee.

Delegates are attending the conference

The key to improve efficiency

Over the years, Binh Duong has always been interested in formulating specific policies and solutions to develop high-tech agriculture. The agricultural sector of the province has made steady development steps with practical contributions to the development of the locality. At the workshop, evaluating the results achieved in the application of science and technology to the agricultural sector, Mr. Vo Van Minh, Chairman of the provincial People's Committee, emphasized: "The proactive and close cooperation and flexible activities between the two branches of science-technology and agriculture have actively deployed synchronous mechanisms and policies to support investment in science and technology development and created a premise for innovation, entrepreneurship and synchronous development of agriculture, population and countryside. In particular, the promotion of the advantages of the triple helix cooperation of State - School - Entrepreneur, the agricultural sector of the province has gradually shaped and developed in a more modern and sustainable direction.

Speaking at the conference, Dr. Nguyen Viet Long, Director of Department of Science and Technology, said: "Over the past time, the province's agricultural sector has creatively applied the Resolution of the 7th Conference of the 10th Party Central Committee on agriculture, farmers and rural areas while taking science, technology and innovation as the key to improve efficiency and make breakthrough in productivity and quality and ensure sustainable agricultural development. Under the creative and flexible point of view, the science and technology sector has supported the agricultural sector to increase value.

Assessing the efficiency of high-tech agriculture in Binh Duong, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ngo Thi Phuong Lan, President of University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University of Ho Chi Minh city, said that catching the development trend and based on the available conditions and challenges facing the agricultural sector, Binh Duong boldly chose high-tech agriculture as a solution to restructure to meet the requirements of growing demand of the agricultural sector. With the efforts of the whole system, high-tech agriculture in Binh Duong has achieved certain achievements in two important fields of animal husbandry and cultivation.

Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Vo Van Minh emphasized that the provincial People's Committee believed that the workshop would be the starting event for a number of scientific research projects of applying technology of great significance in practice such as piloting model of smart villages and high-tech agricultural tourism. The province also wished to connect and share with experts, scientists, institutes, schools and businesses to exchange experiences to solve any drawbacks or current challenges facing the province's agricultural sector. At the same time, the province has received valuable information and learned good experience and solutions to make Binh Duong's agricultural sector developed more and more sustainably.

To get the products far reach

After more than 12 years of operation, U&I Agriculture Joint Stock Company (Unifarm) has greened the entire area of ​​An Thai Agricultural Park with crops of high economic value, which are suitable for the market and capable of growing for farmers. Specifically, the model of growing cantaloupe in a greenhouse with Israeli technology automatically controlled by a computer according to GlobalGAP standards could yield a revenue of more than VND 2 billion per hectare per year, or the model of growing old bananas for export to Korea and Japan  from VND 500 million per hectare per year. After An Thai Agricultural Park, Unifarm opened a project to grow bananas for export with a scale of more than 1,300 hectares in Dau Tieng district. Unifarm has also been consulting to transfer technology and link to many other subjects from small-scale farmers to large companies with farm sizes up to several thousand hectares in Vietnam.

Mr. Mai Huu Tin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of U&I, said: “Unifarm has identified the right product for the market demand and selected the right technology and technique to build the right human resources for high-tech agriculture, technology transfer and linkages with farmers.” Currently, Unifarm branded products have been well received by domestic and international markets and are becoming more and more popular with consumers. Cantaloupe grown by Unifarm since 2010 has especially contributed to knocking Chinese cantaloupe out of the Vietnamese market and affirming the value of Vietnamese agricultural products. Unifarm's banana products have also been successfully exported to demanding markets such as Korea and Japan and sold at the same price as bananas imported from countries with a long tradition of banana cultivation such as Ecuador and the Philippines.

Speaking at the workshop, Ms. Dinh Thai Linh, Director of the World Trade Center in Binh Duong New city, said that innovation activities are growing day by day, demonstrating the capacity of businesses in creating new value to affirm the importance in the innovation process. Connecting services in the fields of science and technology promotion and high-tech agriculture are important in this new stage of development.

Reported by Phuong Le – Translated by Vi Bao