Overcoming the "everyone does it their own way" situation in tracing the origin of agricultural products

Vietnam is one of the countries in the world that has issued many resolutions, programs, and strategies on digital transformation to adapt to the new situation as well as to take advantage of the opportunities brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Reports published by the Center for Digital Transformation and Agricultural Statistics (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) at the scientific workshop "Opportunities and challenges for farmers in digital transformation, building a system to trace the origin of agricultural products", organized by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Union in coordination with relevant units on the morning of June 25 in Hanoi, showed that: The work of tracing the origin of agricultural products is currently facing many intertwined advantages and difficulties.

In addition to the policies and orientations of the Party and the State and a number of circulars and guiding documents of the Ministry of Science and Technology , the information technology infrastructure in Vietnam is currently being increasingly improved; organizations, people and businesses have an increasing demand for the application of traceability of product information; the requirement for publicity and transparency of goods and agricultural products from importing countries is also "urging" domestic producers to seriously implement traceability of agricultural products...

However, traceability activities are still scattered and unsynchronized. Connection and sharing between ministries, branches and localities are still fragmented, "each doing their own thing". Notably, the current legal system still does not have strict sanctions for violations and errors in traceability, such as fraudulent planting area codes.

In addition, production in many places is still fragmented and small-scale, causing certain difficulties when applying modern technology; the lack of human resources causes the work of checking information and input data updated on the agricultural product traceability system to only stop at the post-inspection stage; production, cultivation and livestock habits are specific to regions, without clear processes, making it difficult to apply traceability...

According to Dr. Nguyen Khac Toan, Principal of the Vietnam Farmers’ Union Cadre School, the cause of the above situation partly stems from the limitations in farmers’ knowledge and technological skills as well as the technological infrastructure in many areas, especially in remote areas. Some Farmers’ Union cadres are still vague and do not fully understand digital transformation, and some older cadres are not yet proficient in using smart mobile devices.

In addition, the high initial investment cost for digital transformation is also a big problem that makes farmers not interested due to lack of resources. In some places, farmers have to manually record production log data and then manually enter it into the computer, which takes a lot of time and effort, not to mention the possibility of errors.

At the workshop, delegates also proposed a number of solutions to gradually solve existing problems in technology infrastructure, digital skills, investment costs and data security, make the most of support policies from the State, and seek consensus and efforts from agricultural organizations, businesses, especially officials, members and farmers to promote the digital transformation process in the agricultural sector.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/som-khac-phuc-tinh-trang-manh-ai-nay-lam-trong-truy-xuat-nguon-goc-nong-san-post815966.html