Development of high-tech agriculture in the context of industrialization and urbanization: The case of Vietnam

support policy for high-tech agriculture is 
ineffective because the application of high-tech 
requires a huge amount of investment, while 
capital recovery is slow. The shortage of high-
quality human resources to manage and operate 
modern equipment is another problem for 
Vietnam to implement high-tech agriculture. 
With large-scale agricultural production, farmers 
should be agricultural workers and shareholders 
of agricultural enterprises (Luu Tien Dung & 
Nguyen Thi Kim Hiep, 2017). 
Nguyen Anh Tru et al. (2020) 
https://vjas.vnua.edu.vn/ 675 
The application of ICT in Vietnamese 
agriculture is still in its early stages. Some 
enterprises have started to provide services that 
support decision-making by providing 
information on weather, production 
methodologies, or markets. Some have also 
established experimental farms, allowing them to 
measure the effectiveness of their production 
system using ICT equipment. Although there has 
not yet been sufficient analysis of these 
experiments, there is a growing expectation that 
ICT application will make agriculture more 
efficient and create more added value. Given 
urban consumers’ increasing interest in “safe” or 
“green” products and the growing presence of 
foreign retailers, demand for precision 
agriculture will surely increase in the future. 
Increased opportunities to export agricultural 
products thanks to Vietnam’s participation in 
free trade agreements will also increase demand 
for ICT applications since those products must be 
produced in accordance with importers’ 
certification requirements. The increased 
connectivity brought by ICT may also benefit the 
many who have recently shifted to these new 
commodities, including corporate farms and the 
farmers who switched from grain to non-grain 
crops, who will need information on production 
methodology and markets. Moreover, ICT 
application is also expected to enable more 
efficient production, reduce water use and other 
inputs, and reduce the labor requirements 
(Sakata, 2019). 
Opportunities and Challenges for High-
tech Agriculture in Vietnam 
Opportunities 
In order to respond to climate change and 
ensure food security and agricultural 
sustainability, the Government of Vietnam has 
adopted the “National Target Program to 
Respond to Climate Change and Rising Sea 
Levels” and the “Green Growth Strategy in the 
period 2011-2020, with a vision toward 2050” as 
well as developing organic farming methods and 
safe agriculture in Vietnam through 
collaborations with international organizations. 
Sustainable agricultural development usually 
concentrates on technologies such as preventing 
soil erosion, protecting soil and soil moisture, 
calculating farming possibilities, and terrace 
field methods for sloping terrains to increase 
vegetation covers; adopting active irrigation by 
building reservoirs and applying more effective 
methods like spraying and dripping; and 
designing complete processes for fertilization, 
nutrition, and wastewater treatment. 
Due to the development care of agricultural 
authorities as well as strengthening international 
investments for environment and climate change 
adaptations, high-tech agriculture development 
of Vietnam has made progress in recent years. 
Vietnamese enterprises have opportunities to 
access soft loans or non-refundable aids for 
agricultural practices towards environmental 
protection and adaptations to climate change 
from the UK Aid, the Australian Aid, the World 
Bank, and the ADB through the Vietnam 
Business Challenge Fund (VBCF), Vietnam 
Inclusive Innovation Project (VIIP), and other 
projects financed by the World Bank and 
coordinated by the Ministry of Planning and 
Investment (Nguyen Huu Ninh & Hoang Thi 
Bich Hop, 2019). 
Challenges 
Although there are many opportunities for 
developing high-tech agriculture in Vietnam, the 
country is also facing various challenges. High-
tech agriculture development not only requires a 
full legal basis but also needs synchronous 
technological development, risk management, 
and risk forecast systems as well as enhancing 
international cooperation and facilitating 
massive participation of the private sector in 
agricultural production through public-private 
partnership (PPP) to expand economic 
opportunities for the private sector to ensure 
efficient agricultural production. 
Although the cooperation pattern between 
authorities, scientists, enterprises, and farmers 
has been expanded in agricultural production of 
Vietnam in recent decades, this pattern must 
overcome numerous existing bottlenecks. These 
challenges include an inconsistent environment 
for the engagement of the private sector in 
agricultural production and a shortage of 
Development of high-tech agriculture in the context of Industrialization and urbanization: The case of Vietnam 
676 Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences 
investment capital in agriculture due to high risk, 
slow capital recovery, and low profitability. 
Further, a lack of truth between parties in 
agricultural contracts is defined as another 
challenge. Both enterprises and farmers may 
easily break contracts signed in the cases that 
firms are unable to process and sell final products 
to the market or farmers sell their products to 
merchants to obtain higher prices. In addition, 
scientific and technical farming improvements in 
Vietnam lag behind advanced countries and the 
process of technology transfer from foreign 
counties to Vietnam is expensive. 
Finally, Vietnam is one of the largest rice-
exporting countries in the world. Climate change 
affects not only Vietnam but also food security in 
the region and the world. According to an 
estimation of the United Nations in 2013, the 
global population will continue to rise, and the 
world’s population is predicted to reach 8.2 
billion in 2025 and 9.6 billion in 2050. 
Worldwide agricultural production is more 
complex due to the adverse effects of climate 
change. Thus, Vietnam should promote 
regulations for a green and adaptive agricultural 
economy and support small and medium-sized 
enterprises to take part in global value chains that 
look toward sustainable development (Nguyen 
Huu Ninh & Hoang Thi Bich Hop, 2019). 
Conclusions and Policy Implications 
This article aims to examine the importance 
and development of high-tech agriculture in 
Vietnam under the context of industrialization 
and urbanization. Due to pressure from 
international economic integration and climate 
change in recent years, high-tech agriculture can 
be identified as a feasible direction for Vietnam 
to renovate the agricultural sector. Although 
high-tech agriculture has existed in different 
locals and sub-sectors of agriculture such as 
crop, livestock, and aquaculture, and Vietnam 
has gained initial achievements in adopting 
high-tech agriculture, this country has to face a 
number of challenges related to land, credit, IT, 
and human resources in the process of 
developing high-tech agriculture. 
There are several policies we recommended 
that should be implemented to facilitate the 
development of high-tech agriculture in 
Vietnam. First, high-tech agriculture must be 
considered as the top priority in agricultural 
reform. The government should clarify and solve 
land issues in order to encourage land 
accumulation for large-scale agricultural 
development. Specifically, quotas on agricultural 
land in the 2013 Land Law need to be removed 
or loosened to establish large-scale agricultural 
zones that are suitable for adopting high-tech 
agriculture. Second, implementation of 
consistent credit policies that assist businesses 
and farmers to develop and apply high-tech 
agriculture. For instance, a credit package worth 
100 trillion VND (4.4 billion USD) to invest in 
the development of high-tech agriculture at lower 
than market rates provided by the government is 
necessary to encourage, support, and promote the 
development of high-tech farming applications. 
Third, the country should continue to improve 
policies on the promotion of research, 
innovation, incubation, transfer, technology 
development, and technology application to 
agricultural production, with an emphasis on 
policies to promote the scientific and 
technological potential of the contingent of 
scientists to assist enterprises in developing high-
tech agriculture. Fourth, the country should 
encourage both domestic and foreign enterprises 
to invest in high-tech agriculture. To tackle this 
assignment, the government should introduce 
more specific policies in both medium and long 
terms. The public-private partnership model 
should be promoted to attract more investments 
in agriculture. Fifth, partnerships among the 
State, scientists, businesses, and farmers should 
be consolidated to ensure success of adopting 
high-tech agriculture. For example, the State 
should focus on constructing and releasing macro 
policies related to land, credit, taxes, science and 
technology, and human resource management. 
Scientists have responsibilities in researching 
and inventing new varieties, technology, and 
practices that can be adopted in high-tech 
agriculture. Enterprises and farmers are in charge 
of investing and implementing high-tech 
agriculture models. Finally, high-tech agriculture 
Nguyen Anh Tru et al. (2020) 
https://vjas.vnua.edu.vn/ 677 
should be integrated into the programs on new 
rural and agricultural extensions to efficiently 
exploit resources and improve outcomes. 
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