The year 2018 is the first time when Today Rural Newspaper of VNFU has cooperated with Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Science and Technology to organize the contest: "I am a 4.0 farmer". 10 farmers boldly having applied science and technology to create a breakthrough in production was awarded. What makes these farmers different?

Pioneers
They are called "pioneers" because they always explore new ways of working, even dare to venture into the path that no one has gone through before. There have been failures, however, their outstanding achievements are the result of a process with nonstop efforts.

For instance, the "King banana" Vo Quan Huy in Hiep Hoa commune (Duc Hoa, Long An province) dared to explore the "dead land" with only mangrove and cajuput to grow bananas and raise cows alone by himself, since he saw bananas would be an important exporting product, a key crop in many localities. However, if he only planted banana like other people, he could not become a 4.0 farmer. It is worth noted that the bananas at his farm is grown in a clean process. To meet the requirements of exporting to other countries, Mr. Huy developed a close production system from selecting varieties to caring, packaging and putting them in cold storage at the farm. In order to ensure that bananas are not impacted during the transportation, Huy builds a hundred-kilometer high pulley transport system around the farm. Stems of banana of this system are automatically delivered to the treatment area. When the banana is big, each stem is "dressed" to be prevented from pests and insects. By the time of harvesting, packers begin processing every single banana and eliminating bad ones.

At present, when succeeding in the exporting of bananas to many markets, Mr. Vo Quan Huy has moved to raising Japanese cows.
Meanwhile, farmer 4.0 Vo Van Son - the second prize winner of the contest this year with a high-tech whiteleg shrimp farming project is also a person who can open a new business direction for a lot of farmers in Phuoc Dinh commune (Thuan Nam, Ninh Thuan province). At that time, he decided to abandon the prawns that were suffering from diseases and losses to breed whiteleg shrimp. Currently, with an area of nearly 50 hectares of shrimp farming, the average yield of 12-15 tons per hecta, the selling price ranges from 110,000 to 150,000 VND per kg, the profit is nearly 30 billion VND every year.

New technology application
4.0 farmers are not only pathfinders of new direction of doing things but also the very first persons to apply new technology into the production.
Mrs. Pham Thi Huan, for example, in Ho Chi Minh City runs a project on processing high-tech eggs; Mr. Cao Phat Trien, O Mon district, Can Tho city has a project on designing and installing automatic watering and spraying systems with remote control by mobile phones; Mr. Nguyen Phuoc Viet Cuong, Cao Lanh district, Dong Thap province with a project of growing leafy vegetables with hydroponic technology; Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet, Da Lat City, Lam Dong with a clean vegetable production project applying drip irrigation technology ... The advantages of these models are saving labor costs, increasing productivity and quality, product quality, and environmentally friendly ...

Desiring to have more 4.0 farmers
As one of the 2 persons who received the top prize in the first contest of "I am a 4.0 farmer" competition, Mrs. Pham Thi Huan affirmed: "I hope more farmers will be honored in the contest so that farmers nationwide will have the motivation to apply high-tech agriculture on production. Farmers should not think it costs much to apply high technology or become 4.0 ones. We should start right from the smallest thing to higher level, then continue to study and research".

Khanh Nguyen - Translated by Huong Giang