Agricultural cooperatives keep up with digital technology

Nhan Ly Agricultural Service Cooperative implements a technology field model in rice production.

Change the production method

Promoting digital transformation and applying science and technology in agriculture in Vinh Phuc has brought about many positive results, with the formation of a series of cooperatives and pilot production models, enriching farmers.

Tam Dao Mushroom Cooperative (Hop Chau town, Tam Dao district), in addition to boldly investing in a cold storage system to preserve products after harvest, a system of breeding rooms, tissue culture, packaging lines, steam sterilization boilers for production, registering exclusive trademarks, barcodes for traceability and processing a variety of products from Cordyceps, the cooperative is also flexible and creative in finding markets through social networks and e-commerce platforms to help stabilize product output. Currently, the cooperative supplies the market with 350 tons of mushrooms of all kinds/year, with profits reaching hundreds of millions of VND.

As a cooperative that is managing and organizing production and cultivation with an area of ​​over 150 hectares of agricultural land in 3 villages of Ly Hai, Ly Nhan and Duong Coc in Phu Xuan commune (Binh Xuyen), with 6 production groups including 635 households, focusing on production and trading of key agricultural products such as rice, sticky corn, sweet corn, vegetables of all kinds... The application of modern machinery and equipment in production has been implemented by Nhan Ly Agricultural Service Cooperative for many years, and up to now, the cooperative is one of the leading units in developing smart agriculture associated with ecological safety in the province.

Sharing with the media, Ms. Le Thi Huong, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Nhan Ly Agricultural Service Cooperative, said: From 2015 to now, the cooperative has maintained 130 hectares of organically produced rice, successfully building a safe rice brand produced in an organic direction with an annual supply of over 50 tons of rice to the market, and has been granted the 3-star OCOP rice product brand in 2020. The cooperative has also successfully built 6 hectares of vegetable production with VietGAP safety certification. In addition, the cooperative also connects farmers in satellite areas to produce according to the cooperative's instructions and all organically produced products will be purchased by the unit at a price 15-40% higher than the market price.

Tam Dao Mushroom Cooperative and Nhan Ly Agricultural Service Cooperative are just two of many cooperative models applying high technology in the province in recent times, which not only helps units optimize production and business activities but also brings satisfaction to customers, contributing to improving the quality of people's lives.

Improve competitiveness, expand market

Currently, the province has 260 agricultural cooperatives operating effectively in 26 production and consumption chains of safe agricultural products. Many products of cooperatives have become key products, developing into typical OCOP products of each locality.

However, the scale of some chains is still small, making it difficult to compete with businesses operating in the same field. To improve the competitiveness of key products, in recent times, many cooperatives have proactively adapted to digital technology , taking advantage of social networking sites such as Zalo, Facebook, building sales websites, participating in e-commerce trading floors, reaching out to many customers, and expanding the product consumption market.

With the premise of a safe vegetable and fruit production model according to VietGAP standards, all information about the production, care and harvesting processes are updated in the field diary, making it easy to trace the origin of the products. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, in addition to traditional sales channels, the Board of Directors of An Hoa Agricultural Service Cooperative has quickly adapted to digital technology to expand the market and increase opportunities for sustainable development.

Mr. Do Van Dung, Director of the cooperative shared: "The cooperative has proactively built its own website, through social networking sites Zalo, Facebook, e-commerce platforms such as Voso.vn, Sendo.vn to promote products, find consumer markets. Quickly approaching this new sales method has helped us link production and consumption with a number of cooperatives in neighboring provinces and cities and have new consumer markets such as supermarket systems, clean food stores, and corporate kitchens".

In fact, the application of digital technology to consume agricultural products of the province has been gradually affirmed as the right direction, in line with the strong development of modern science and technology.

Many cooperatives have applied digital transformation to create new products and services, and implemented activities to transform sales, marketing, administration and operations models.

To date, the province has nearly 300 agricultural products, 3-star or higher OCOP products of farmers and agricultural production cooperatives posted on the e-commerce trading floor. This is a way to help customers quickly update product information, easily compare prices with similar products of other units, bringing many advantages, avoiding buying expensive or buying agricultural products of unknown origin.

This is an opportunity for farmers and cooperatives to continue promoting the strengths of their products. This will help encourage farmers to actively maintain the value of agricultural products and traditional agricultural products; proactively produce products associated with local strengths and help agricultural products reach further.

Article and photos: Thieu Vu

Source: http://baovinhphuc.com.vn/Multimedia/Images/Id/126727/Hop-tac-xa-nong-nghiep-bat-nhip-cong-nghe-so