Modern agriculture is adopting digital technologies, transforming the industry and increasing productivity. According to Vietnam’s Digital Agriculture Profile, most of the vital farming technologies have already been deployed or tested in the country.

Vietnam is expanding the list of digital farming tools for industry development, including the Internet of things and big data. Farmers are also using remote sensing capabilities. Technologies help Vietnamese agriculture move from traditional to modern agriculture.

Using Technology for Precision Farming

The Internet of Things is changing many industries and everyday routines. Smart farming is also becoming inseparable from the concept of IoT to make life easier for farmers. This improvement aims to enable agricultural business participants to become more aware of potential threats to crops or livestock before damage occurs. Thus, farmers can take timely action to protect their land.

Precision farming is an approach that involves more controlled and precise crop and livestock production. The basis of this approach is technology, the use of various sensors, equipment automation, the introduction of modern management methods, and much more. Recently, IoT has also been applied in precision agriculture.

This technology is used for soil sensors, variable rate irrigation optimization, and other critical agricultural activities. The IoT systems allow you to use resources as efficiently and accurately as possible, saving money and increasing farm productivity.

The software also plays a meaningful role in modern agriculture, giving farmers many useful new features. Farm software allows you to remotely record various changes in the fields and analyze them using indicators that are calculated based on the spectral ranges of remote sensing data, namely the normalized difference moisture index.

Software using these indexes has several advantages, which relate to the accuracy of the information received on the status of crops, the ability to reduce costs, increase productivity and improve product quality. In addition, the advantage of using vegetation indexes is the ability to increase the farm’s sustainability through the rational use of resources. For example, with knowledge of NDMI soil moisture, farmers can optimize crop watering and combat water overuse.

Satellite technologies for more efficient use of water

Satellite technologies are crucial for the development of agriculture all over the world. For example, they allow water content monitoring in crops with NDMI. The Normalized Difference Moisture Index uses a combination of several spectral bands (NIR and SWIR) to determine the moisture level of vegetation. SWIR shows changes in plants’ spongy mesophyll structure and water content. NIR displays the internal structure of the leaf and its dry matter content. Together, NIR and SWIR improve the accuracy of water level detection in crops, as the combination eliminates changes caused by dry matter content and internal leaf structure.

NDMI farm tool helps growers to detect water stress in crops.It is a vital tool as extreme drought can cause crop destruction. Index application allows farmers to identify crop stress early and avoid significant damage. Irrigation monitoring using a normalized difference index allows the most efficient water use, including in dry regions. In addition, NDMI enables the monitoring of fuel levels in hazardous fire areas.

Data from remote sensing technologies are used to allocate water rationally and economically. Farmers determine which zones need irrigation adjustments and create a more efficient schedule. Satellite-driven solutions help prevent wasted water and overwatering, optimizing irrigation systems.

Effective water use by paddy cultivation farmers

The rice-growing industry is a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions, over 10 percent. In addition, this crop consumes more than 20 percent of the water used by global agriculture. At the same time, Vietnamese farmers face the problem of lack of water, as the Mekong Delta has suffered from extreme drought in recent years. However, today there are effective technological solutions that can make rice cultivation more environmentally friendly, reducing emissions and using less water. Furthermore, various sustainable cultivation practices are also offered to farmers.

One such practice is AWD, which involves alternately flooding and drying rice fields. During the flooding phase, water is kept low to reduce consumption by up to 48 percent. The advantage of this method is obvious, but its application is associated with some difficulties. For example, farmers need to consider all the features and conditions of the soil, as well as the variety of rice, to choose the optimal irrigation scheme at each stage. Accordingly, farmers need to monitor the water level for proper irrigation constantly. In addition, access to water should be self-contained so that farmers can pump water for irrigation when needed.