Attending the event were Mr. Le Minh Hoan, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development; Mr. Tran Van Nam, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development; Ms. Cao Xuan Thu Van, Vice Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of Vietnam Farmers' Union; Mr. Tran Viet Truong, Chairman of the People's Committee of Can Tho city; Mr. Nguyen Ngoc He, Vice Chairman of People's Committee of Can Tho city; representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (Thailand); leaders of Champasak province (Laos); representatives of the German Embassy in Vietnam; representatives of central ministries and branches; leaders of the People's Committees of the provinces in the Mekong Delta region; international organizations…

The Agritechnica Asia Live 2022 received the attention of central and local agencies as well as domestic and international organizations. It also attracted more than 4,000 farmers to exhibitions, conferences, seminars, and exchange programs on solutions to apply mechanization in agricultural production.

Mr. Le Minh Hoan, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, spoke at the opening ceremony.

This is an opportunity for farmers to quickly and effectively access modern technologies; create a playground for domestic and foreign businesses to promote products, modern technology, as well as promote exchange and cooperation in the field of agriculture; scale the application of 4.0 agriculture and smart technologies through live demonstrations of mechanization and digital agriculture; strengthen agricultural application capacity 4.0 through the PPP forum to exchange knowledge and experiences between Asian countries and other partners in the agricultural value chain. Additionally, the event's participants will propose policies and roadmap for the application of technology towards sustainable agricultural economic transformation, appropriate to the actual context of each field and each country.

“With the policy of agricultural restructuring, sustainable agricultural development, associated with new rural development, The Government of Vietnam continues to pay attention, promulgate and consider many policies to support the development of agricultural mechanization such as Credit policy and interest rate support for buyers of agricultural machinery and equipment; VAT exemption policy for the import of specialized machines and equipment for agriculture...”. We also pay serious attention to activities on training workers to use machines and equipment for agricultural mechanization, improvement of field infrastructure, aquaculture establishments, livestock, and poultry raising...”, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan spoke at the opening ceremony.

Mr. Tran Viet Truong, Chairman of the People's Committee of Can Tho city, believed that Agritechnica Asia Live 2022 would make many important contributions to the process of cooperation and linkage in sustainable agricultural production.

According to Minister Le Minh Hoan, agricultural mechanization is not only a separate solution or a particular stage, but it can be applied effectively and synchronously for most production stages and is the basis for building and developing sustainable agricultural product value chains, with linkages and cooperation between businesses, cooperatives, and farmers. This requires how the value chain is organized, the role of the government in providing information and public services, and creating basic infrastructure to promote synchronous mechanization. Agricultural mechanization is not only in favor of productivity and output, but gradually towards “precision agriculture”, in order to improve the quality and the value for agricultural products, and reduce costs according to the mindset of less is more”.

Mr. Le Minh Hoan also believed that as mechanization and application of science and technology in agriculture, including digital technology, become more and more popular and accessible, Asian agriculture with the characteristics of young countries and based on the foundation of smallholder farmers, can actively select suitable and feasible solutions to close the gap, build a basic and methodical foundation to support the development of modern, inclusive and sustainable agriculture. In addition, there should be solutions to promote agricultural mechanization, create favorable conditions for the development of technology markets in agriculture; create an interaction mechanism between the state and businesses, cooperatives, and farmers to promptly update practical needs, promote learning, transfer, and application of agricultural technology in an appropriate manner.

Visitors to the exhibition area for equipment for mechanization in agricultural production.

According to Mr. Tran Viet Truong, Chairman of the People's Committee of Can Tho city, along with the trend of urbanization, the development speed of industry, commerce, and services is currently increasing rapidly. Consequently, the land is gradually shrinking, and labor in the agricultural sector is changing jobs or moving to other areas more and more. Therefore, the application of mechanization and automation in agricultural production is a basic and indispensable solution to increase productivity, contributing to an efficient agricultural production and sustainable development. In addition, the current climate change has a huge impact on the Mekong Delta region, in which agriculture is the most severely affected sector.

“Strengthening mechanization in agriculture must both solve the need to liberate labor, ensure food security, and solve the need of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, we must keep up with the trend of the 4th industrial revolution with the foundation of 4.0 technology, which requires mechanization in agriculture to be very synchronous,” stressed Mr. Truong.

Chairman Mr. Tran Viet Truong believed that Agritechnica Asia Live 2022 would make many important contributions to the process of cooperation and linkage in sustainable agricultural production.

The Agritechnica Asia Live 2022 event takes place in Can Tho city from August 24th to August 26th, with main activities such as Opening ceremony of the event; connection night; operation of advanced and modern machinery, equipment applied in sustainable agricultural production, smart rice farming models, demonstration of bio-fertilizer; exhibition of OCOP products;… Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute has prepared approximately 20 hectares of fields, with 9 models with the participation from 8 demonstrators.

At the Agricultural Extension Centers in the Mekong Delta region, 25 models and extension projects have been demonstrated in the fields of cultivation, forestry, animal husbandry, veterinary medicine, aquatic products, etc. on a scale of more than 2,074 hectares.