Hi-tech farms are set to change the agriculture sector (Photo: VNA)Quang Nam (VNA) - An IT engineer incentral Vietnam is demonstrating the value of hydroculture as an effective wayto build climate change resilience in the storm-prone region.
After working with the military-run telecomgroup Viettel for seven years, Nguyen Quoc Phong decided he wanted to dosomething else.
The 33-year-old man from Nui Thanh district incentral Quang Nam province has since used his IT know-how and experience tostudy and promote hydroponic farming, launching a startup of his own.
Phong surfed the internet for information andsolutions, found suppliers in the Netherlands and Israel, imported materialsand quality fertiliers and seeds.
“It’s not new in the world, but it has just emergedin central region. Farmers have a long tradition of growing vegetables in thesoil, which is low cost and easy, but also carries the risk of contaminationwith water and air pollution already at alarming levels. And with rapidurbanisation in the region, it is not going to get better soon.
“Local farmers still hesitate to change to newagriculture, or hi-tech farming. They are used to growing with easy tools, butnot electronically controlled devices or smart-phone guided production,” Phongsaid, explaining why his company, H2O Farm Viet Nam, has launched a packagesolution.
Phong said the package, including recycled watermixed with fertiliser, a pumping system and pipes made with durable material,would help farmers save a lot of time working with soil, manual watering anddealing with pest problems.
“Farmers can manage operation of the system withtheir smartphones to set up nutrition pumping timer for the vegetables, andthey do not need to work directly with hazardous pesticides.
“However, they have to change from theirlabour-intensive farming into hi-tech application production with stricterconditions like using toxin-free water and specific doses of other inputs likefertiliser and sunlight,” he said.
Phong explained that water at all the farms haveto be tested to eliminate hazardous contaminants, while seeds and fertilisersfrom the Netherlands and Israel would offer suitable material for hydroponicfarms.
He said 24-hour programmed pumping system willhelp carry a mixture of water and nutrition to grow saplings.
“It’s like a stream running day and night. Rootswill absorb nutrition from the water running through pipes. Each sapling growsin a plastic box, and farmers can harvest easily by moving it up after 25days,” he said, adding that a small household’s hydroponic garden could produce40kg of greens each month.
Household gardening
Tran Thi Anh Thu, a Da Nang resident, said she installed a 6sq.m hydroponicgarden on her rooftop eight months ago, growing vegetables for her family.
“I could harvest vegetables from this garden 25days after sowing. I do not have to buy these vegetables from the marketanymore, because the garden provides plenty and we even have some forneighbours,” Thu said.
Her family needs at least 3kg of fresh vegetablesa day. “I invested 10 million VND (442 USD) for installation of the hydroponicsystem including water pipes, beds, pumps and seeds. I just spend a littlemoney (around 5 USD) for buying new seeds or fertilisers a month.”
Thu said she did not spend a lot of time on thegarden, and had more time now for housework and caring for children.
The 42-year housewife also said she had plantedvegetables in soil on plastic trays or styrofoam boxes, but that required moretime to water, protecting the plants from pests and rats.
She said the hi-tech garden was really suitablefor household that wants safe vegetables.
Bui Thi Thanh Suong of Dien Ban district inQuang Nam province, said her family had grown vegetables for 20 years viatraditional farming, and only recently began hydroponic farming as a trial.
“In cooperation with the H2 Farm Vietnamcompany, we have developed a small hydroponics area on our 3,000sq.m gardenwith total investment of 70 million VND (3,000 USD),” Suong said.
“We saw that growers did not waste time to clearweeds, prepare soil or halt crops because of rain or floods.”
The 26-year-old woman said that in hydroponics,pest and insect attacks could be avoided, and strictly tested quality seedswould ensure a bumper crop. "While it requires more investment thantraditional farming, the focus is on consumers seeking high-qualityproduce," she said.
“High and medium income customers have graduallybeen seeking safe food and vegetables. They are willing to pay higher pricesfor daily greens at selected places,” she said.
She said hydroponic salad greens, includinglettuce costs between 60,000 VND (2.6 USD) and 90,000 VND (3.9 USD) per kilo,much higher than normally grown vegetables, which only cost between 10,000 VND(0.44 USD) and 40,000 VND (1.7 USD) per kilo.
Suong said her family supplies 70kg ofvegetables every day to farms with the Vietnam Agriculture Practice(VietGAP) certification.
However, hydroponics is still limited to growingleafy vegetables, and it should be expanded to other products like beans,pumpkins, potatoes and tomatoes, Suong said.
Minimum cost
Phong said his company can design a householdhydroponic garden of just 2 to 6sq.m at minimum costs of 6 million VND (265USD) to 8 million VND (354 USD).
He reiterated that hydroponics can help preventthe alarming overuse of stimulants in agriculture.
He said he plans to expand hydroponics intomountainous areas in Quang Nam, where farms are destroyed by disasters everyyear, and promote household gardening in Da Nang and Tam Ky cities.
“Household hi-tech gardening can supply safegreens to supermarkets or directly to urban communities, and its expansionwould also reduce investment.”-VNA
After working with the military-run telecomgroup Viettel for seven years, Nguyen Quoc Phong decided he wanted to dosomething else.
The 33-year-old man from Nui Thanh district incentral Quang Nam province has since used his IT know-how and experience tostudy and promote hydroponic farming, launching a startup of his own.
Phong surfed the internet for information andsolutions, found suppliers in the Netherlands and Israel, imported materialsand quality fertiliers and seeds.
“It’s not new in the world, but it has just emergedin central region. Farmers have a long tradition of growing vegetables in thesoil, which is low cost and easy, but also carries the risk of contaminationwith water and air pollution already at alarming levels. And with rapidurbanisation in the region, it is not going to get better soon.
“Local farmers still hesitate to change to newagriculture, or hi-tech farming. They are used to growing with easy tools, butnot electronically controlled devices or smart-phone guided production,” Phongsaid, explaining why his company, H2O Farm Viet Nam, has launched a packagesolution.
Phong said the package, including recycled watermixed with fertiliser, a pumping system and pipes made with durable material,would help farmers save a lot of time working with soil, manual watering anddealing with pest problems.
“Farmers can manage operation of the system withtheir smartphones to set up nutrition pumping timer for the vegetables, andthey do not need to work directly with hazardous pesticides.
“However, they have to change from theirlabour-intensive farming into hi-tech application production with stricterconditions like using toxin-free water and specific doses of other inputs likefertiliser and sunlight,” he said.
Phong explained that water at all the farms haveto be tested to eliminate hazardous contaminants, while seeds and fertilisersfrom the Netherlands and Israel would offer suitable material for hydroponicfarms.
He said 24-hour programmed pumping system willhelp carry a mixture of water and nutrition to grow saplings.
“It’s like a stream running day and night. Rootswill absorb nutrition from the water running through pipes. Each sapling growsin a plastic box, and farmers can harvest easily by moving it up after 25days,” he said, adding that a small household’s hydroponic garden could produce40kg of greens each month.
Household gardening
Tran Thi Anh Thu, a Da Nang resident, said she installed a 6sq.m hydroponicgarden on her rooftop eight months ago, growing vegetables for her family.
“I could harvest vegetables from this garden 25days after sowing. I do not have to buy these vegetables from the marketanymore, because the garden provides plenty and we even have some forneighbours,” Thu said.
Her family needs at least 3kg of fresh vegetablesa day. “I invested 10 million VND (442 USD) for installation of the hydroponicsystem including water pipes, beds, pumps and seeds. I just spend a littlemoney (around 5 USD) for buying new seeds or fertilisers a month.”
Thu said she did not spend a lot of time on thegarden, and had more time now for housework and caring for children.
The 42-year housewife also said she had plantedvegetables in soil on plastic trays or styrofoam boxes, but that required moretime to water, protecting the plants from pests and rats.
She said the hi-tech garden was really suitablefor household that wants safe vegetables.
Bui Thi Thanh Suong of Dien Ban district inQuang Nam province, said her family had grown vegetables for 20 years viatraditional farming, and only recently began hydroponic farming as a trial.
“In cooperation with the H2 Farm Vietnamcompany, we have developed a small hydroponics area on our 3,000sq.m gardenwith total investment of 70 million VND (3,000 USD),” Suong said.
“We saw that growers did not waste time to clearweeds, prepare soil or halt crops because of rain or floods.”
The 26-year-old woman said that in hydroponics,pest and insect attacks could be avoided, and strictly tested quality seedswould ensure a bumper crop. "While it requires more investment thantraditional farming, the focus is on consumers seeking high-qualityproduce," she said.
“High and medium income customers have graduallybeen seeking safe food and vegetables. They are willing to pay higher pricesfor daily greens at selected places,” she said.
She said hydroponic salad greens, includinglettuce costs between 60,000 VND (2.6 USD) and 90,000 VND (3.9 USD) per kilo,much higher than normally grown vegetables, which only cost between 10,000 VND(0.44 USD) and 40,000 VND (1.7 USD) per kilo.
Suong said her family supplies 70kg ofvegetables every day to farms with the Vietnam Agriculture Practice(VietGAP) certification.
However, hydroponics is still limited to growingleafy vegetables, and it should be expanded to other products like beans,pumpkins, potatoes and tomatoes, Suong said.
Minimum cost
Phong said his company can design a householdhydroponic garden of just 2 to 6sq.m at minimum costs of 6 million VND (265USD) to 8 million VND (354 USD).
He reiterated that hydroponics can help preventthe alarming overuse of stimulants in agriculture.
He said he plans to expand hydroponics intomountainous areas in Quang Nam, where farms are destroyed by disasters everyyear, and promote household gardening in Da Nang and Tam Ky cities.
“Household hi-tech gardening can supply safegreens to supermarkets or directly to urban communities, and its expansionwould also reduce investment.”-VNA
VNA
