When mentioning Central Highlands agriculture, we must talk about Lam Dong first.

Lam Dong is a mountainous province in the south of the Central Highlands with a natural area of approximately 970,000 ha. There are up to 300,000 ha of agricultural land with three distinct ecological zones, including the 500 m and lower area, the 500 - 800 m area, and the 800 - 1,500 m area.

It must be said that with the advantages of climate and land, Lam Dong province has their focuses on developing agriculture to be more comprehensive, sustainable and modern in the direction of hi-tech application agriculture, smart agriculture and organic agriculture.

The hi-tech application scale reaches 62,000 ha in 2021, accounting for 21% of Lam Dong's agricultural area. The average revenue of these areas is over VND 500 million/ha/year, some areas can even reach VND 1.5 - 2 billion/ha/year.

Hi-tech agriculture in Lam Dong develops comprehensively both in terms of crops and livestock. Especially in the field of vegetables and flowers, many areas have developed IoT technology, applied effective agricultural infrastructure measures, renewable energy, and automatic adjustment. Hundreds of ha of farms use drones to control crop growth, secure plant protection procedures and predict crop yields. And many livestock farms are gradually developing on a large scale, applying microchips to monitor the growth as well as take care of the cattle’s health.

On the basis of international integration as well as adaptation to climate change, Lam Dong agriculture will continue to advance, following a new set of requirements, reflected in a number of contents:

Develop agriculture in a comprehensive manner, enhance value chains, concentrate on the application of high science and technology as well as human resources training;

Develop crops with competitive advantages on a larger scale such as perennial industrial crops (tea, maca, mulberry, coffee) and develop livestock specifically dairy cows;

Focus on advanced development in the same unit area and apply comprehensive solutions to further develop organic agriculture in the direction of ecological agriculture.

Although it is also affected by climate change, compared to the Central region or the Mekong Delta, the Central Highlands will become a region full of competitive advantages in the future. The Central Highlands’ household production area is larger than anywhere else, so it is easy to access mechanization, not to mention the provinces are gradually applying smart agriculture and participating in the global value chain. This is the premise to make full use of the 5.6 million ha of land in the Central Highlands.

What we need to do in the near future is to increase production value through applying science and technology, create production linkages, form leading enterprises, and attract other economic sectors to attain a larger total product value when participating in the global value chain.

First and foremost, it is essential to resolve certain issues in order to unlock Central Highlands’ integrated potential.

The first issue is training human resources to meet the current requirements of modern - sustainable - ecological agriculture, climate change adaptation and international integration.

The second issue is investing strongly in digital transformation in agriculture, and applying smart agricultural solutions. And to do so, we must be more open to hardware and software products to synchronize production procedures.

The third issue is improving the value chain especially in terms of logistics to ensure a synchronous chain. The Central Highlands currently has problems with infrastructure, transportation, and the cost of goods is very large so we need to expand agriculture on a large scale, connecting highways in the Central Highlands to eastern provinces as well as the Southeast region.

The last issue is to focus on science and technology, at the same time research on biological methods to create new varieties that can adapt to new conditions and prevent pests and diseases effectively. The new varieties will hence produce agricultural products that ensure food quality and safety. Only then can we improve our competitiveness in the global value chain in the future.

Translated by Samuel Pham