The Hanoi People's Committee will allocate more than VND10 billion (US$390,000) from its budget to finance districts' procurement of machinery and equipment for digital transformation in agriculture, according to Nguyen Manh Quyen, Deputy Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee.

He added that this year, the program will be implemented in seven districts, supporting 28 farms with a total budget of more than VND3.6 billion ($140,000). In 2025, the plan will be expanded to eight more districts, supporting 49 businesses with a total budget of over VND6.5 billion ($250,000).

Customers can trace the provenance of thousands of agricultural products in Hanoi. Photo: VGP

The city's agricultural sector has supported producers, processors and manufacturers in the farming, forestry and aquaculture fields to apply information technology (IT) in developing secure agricultural product supply chains.

Digital transformation in agriculture has started to yield positive results. In Thuong Tin District, Thanh Ha Agricultural Production and Service Cooperative is one of the safe vegetable production units according to VietGAP standards, with an area of about 10,000 square meters for sprout cultivation.

Director of the Cooperative Bui Thi Thanh Ha said the cooperative has applied IT to register QR codes integrated with product traceability information, such as the production process, harvesting, and packaging.

Consumers can scan the QR code on the product with their smartphone to get full information about the product's origin. The cooperative supplies over 200 tons of various sprout products to the market each year, she added.

In Dong Anh district, the Hai Anh Safe Vegetable Cooperative in Van Noi commune boasts over 20 hectares of vegetable production that complies with VietGAP standards. According to the cooperative's director, Nguyen Van Hanh, they have implemented technology solutions by registering QR codes that provide comprehensive traceability data. This has helped build trust among their consumers.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Hanoi has developed 285 high-tech, digitally transformed agricultural production models. The value of these products currently accounts for about 40% of the city's total. The most effective application models are mainly found in districts such as Me Linh, Gia Lam, Thuong Tin, Dong Anh, Thanh Oai, and Dan Phuong.

Challenges in digital transformation adoption

QR code used to pay for vegetables at a local market in Hanoi. Photo: Economic & Urban Newspaper

Hanoi authority has supported cooperatives and enterprises in developing the "Hanoi Agricultural, Forestry, Aquatic and Food Traceability System" (check.hanoi.gov.vn), said Nguyen Thi Thu Hang, Director of the Hanoi Sub-Department of Agro-Forestry and Fisheries Quality Management under the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

She added that the system currently has 3,430 facilities open accounts on the website, including cooperatives, production, processing and packaging facilities for agricultural, forestry and aquatic products. These facilities have uploaded more than 13,300 product traceability codes that meet food safety criteria.

The application of this system in managing the safe agricultural supply chain has helped cooperatives and enterprises transition from traditional agricultural production to modern agriculture, utilizing Industry 4.0 technologies, according to the director.

Hang emphasized that food production and processing enterprises have applied advanced quality management programs such as HACCP, GMP, warehouse and logistics programs, storage control, and production-consumption chain integration, effectively monitoring the origin and quality of agricultural products from raw materials to finished products.

She added that companies are also using e-commerce and social media platforms such as Facebook, Zalo and TikTok to help producers communicate directly with consumers.

However, the director emphasized that the IT application of most companies and cooperatives still does not meet the requirements of digital transformation. This is due to the lack of a comprehensive database to support production, insufficient transparency in the origin of products, and the unavailability of information sharing across the stages of production, management, logistics and trade.

"Moreover, it needs a lot of capital, but local enterprises and co-ops have limited resources, so it is implemented inconsistently," he said.

In view of this, she stressed that the industry has provided software applications to support digital transformation in production and business management, intending to promote the development of a digital agricultural economy in the new context. This is a step-by-step process to build a database system to manage, monitor and control agricultural, forestry and aquatic products in the market.