Competitive agricultural services with technology

As an industrial province, Dong Nai attracts a large number of rural laborers from other localities to work as workers in industrial parks and clusters. The strong shift of labor from rural areas to industrial parks has caused an increasing shortage of labor in the agricultural sector. However, with the advantage of strong agricultural development and the formation of large specialized areas, agricultural services (AAS) in the province have also made a breakthrough development compared to many other provinces and cities.

The Agricultural Service Team of the Chinh Duc Durian Cooperative (Song Ray Commune) is a local pioneer in investing in drones to spray pesticides and fertilizers for fruit orchards. Photo: B.Nguyen

In particular, in recent years, agricultural service has undergone a major qualitative change from manual labor, with low efficiency, to the application of high technology (CNC) in production. CNC agricultural service teams have not only increased rapidly in number, but their techniques and technologies have also been constantly upgraded to meet the needs of mechanization and modernization in agricultural production.

Great demand

Recently, localities in the province have been busy with the summer fruit harvest. This is the time when the demand for agricultural workers, especially for fruit harvesting workers in the localities, increases. Meanwhile, the supply of agricultural workers in rural areas cannot meet the demand, so the price of labor increases rapidly every year.

The price for harvesting fruit usually ranges from 250,000 to 500,000 VND/day; the price for spraying pesticides is up to 1.2-1.5 million VND/day. In particular, the price for harvesting durian is the highest compared to the price for harvesting other fruits and agricultural products. In particular, the high price often paid to the "knockers" and cutters of durian is up to 2-2.5 million VND/day. Mr. Nguyen Minh Vuong, a durian cutter in Hang Gon ward, said that the job of "knock" durian to recognize when the fruit is ripe enough to cut requires skills and a special secret. Workers often have to have many years of experience to do it. The more experienced the worker is, the higher the salary.

One of the growing areas with high mechanization in agricultural services is corn and rice cultivation. Mr. Tran Quang, Director of Xuan Tien Agricultural Service and Trade Cooperative (Xuan Phu commune), shared that along with investing in large fields of corn and rice cultivation according to the chain, the cooperative invested in machinery for many stages from land preparation, sowing, weeding, harvesters for harvesting corn and rice right on the field to drying and milling factories... to reduce production costs, enhance competitive advantages and competitiveness.

The 100-hectare red dragon fruit farm in Xuan Phu commune is also a pioneer in organizing a professional service team. The farm has 100 workers working regularly. The way this service team is organized is quite unique when the workers are not only hired but also assigned to each household to take care of a specific number of dragon fruit trees. They are not only hired workers but also receive a commission on the total income of the contracted garden area. Thanks to that, the farm maximizes initiatives and improvements in labor to come up with the most effective plant care solutions.

Supporting and accompanying farmers in applying science and technology to production is one of the contents that the Department of Agriculture and Environment has been interested in implementing for many years. Up to now, the province has attracted 328 agricultural enterprises applying CNC. The value of CNC agricultural products of the province has reached more than 38 trillion VND, accounting for more than 51.2% of the total value of the province's key agricultural products. The whole province has 8 CNC agricultural areas with a scale of nearly 1.6 thousand hectares.

Compete with high technology

In response to the increasing demand for agricultural services, recently, many cooperatives and farm owners have boldly invested large capital, bringing CNC into the agricultural service sector, bringing high economic efficiency.

Mr. Vu Viet Chau, who has about 4 hectares of land for growing fruit trees and tissue culture bananas for export in Gia Kiem commune, is a good local farmer with rich experience in plant care. In response to the large demand for agricultural services in the locality, he has invested in providing a variety of services from care, pruning, and treatment for fruit trees to harvest early and achieve high productivity. This agricultural service team also invested in drones to fertilize and spray pesticides for local gardens. He also has a team specializing in installing water-saving irrigation systems, using many types of homemade materials to have much lower costs than the general market level. In addition, he also has a team of workers specializing in building roads and bridges in hamlets and communes at low costs. He is a prestigious person in the community in mobilizing people to join hands in building new rural areas.

Farmers in Tan Binh commune hire services to harvest rice and sell products right in the fields.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Trung, a member of the Chinh Duc Durian Cooperative (Song Ray Commune) is also a pioneer in the locality in investing in unmanned aerial vehicles to spray pesticides and fertilizers for fruit orchards, bringing many benefits. Mr. Trung compared that for one hectare of durian, it takes a worker all day to spray pesticides, but with unmanned aerial vehicles, it only takes about 20 minutes to complete, and at the same time saves a lot of water, fertilizer, and pesticides compared to the traditional method. In addition, with many fruit trees that have to regularly spray foliar fertilizers and pesticides to treat pests compared to spraying pesticides using an irrigation system or manually by hand, the use of this CNC device promptly prevents pests from arising and spreading, causing harm to productivity and crops. The cooperative does not focus too much on profit, so it offers appropriate service prices to serve its members and local farmers.

The service group organized by Mr. Ngo Thanh Phong (Hang Gon ward) during the peak production season is creating jobs for about 200 workers. The service group is divided into 7 specialized groups such as: weeding, pruning, fertilizing, transporting, harvesting... During the peak of the dry season, many workers have to work overtime to water at night, so although they are manual laborers, their income is up to 50-70 million VND/person/month. In particular, he is a pioneer in making a mini durian model, cutting the tops to control the durian trees from getting too tall, convenient for care, harvesting, saving fertilizer and pesticides while the plants still achieve high productivity. His service group is taking care of about 300 hectares of durian in the locality and neighboring areas. In particular, he has expanded the economically efficient mini durian growing model to dozens of hectares and is continuing to accompany farmers in applying new science and technology to production, contributing to increasing profits for the orchard.

Binh Nguyen

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/kinh-te/202507/dich-vu-nong-nghiep-canh-tranh-bang-cong-nghe-4030c14/