Page 28 - Agricultural innovation

Figure 8. Irrigation system at My Dong 2 Cooperative in Dong Thap province
Source: Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper

The combination of water level monitoring parameters, sensor tubes to control alternate wet and
dry irrigation and pump control station makes it convenient for the cooperative to adjust the water
level in the field. The electric pump station system consists of two pumps controlled by a sensor system,
so the control station manager only needs to use a smartphone with an internet connection to remotely
control the pumping station system to supply water to the field in the right time. Therefore, it has
helped to reduce 30% of water pumping costs by shortening the time. Specifically, if a normal pump
takes 2 to 3 days to fill up the field with water, pumping with this inverter pump only takes 1–2 hours
to ensure full water for 170 ha without farmers taking much efforts. Before, when this pumping station
was not available, the pumping of water took a long time and was uneven among the fields. In the high
fields, the water is not enough, while the low fields are flooded with rice, so the rice sometimes fails
and sometimes hits. However, since having this pumping station along with the construction of canals,
including laying water pipes for each field, people are actively in bringing water in and out. Along with
the investment in the electric pumping station system, farmers the smart rice production process to
reduce the amount of seed, use one-time fertilizer for a crop, reduce costs by 50% and increase profits.
In addition to reducing the cost of irrigation, farmers whose fields are located in the pump system
cover also enjoy many other benefits: thanks to the initiative in the water source, the weed situation
is very few, due to simultaneous sowing and varieties, so it is easy to apply technical measures in rice
cultivation such as “1 right, 5 decrease” (use of certified seed and 5 decreases, including decrease of
seed, fertilisers, water, pesticides and after-harvest losses), “3 decrease (seed, fertilisers, pesticides) 3
increase (productivity, quality, effectiveness”. Since then, rice productivity has also been continuously
improved. In addition, the harvest and sale of rice is also more convenient, because the entire internal
surrounding dike system is closed, trucks can go to the field to buy rice.
Taking advantage of the large field, the cooperative has provided the service of sowing rice or
spraying pesticides by drones for members to help reduce time and manual labor.
With drone fertilization and rice sowing, each time the machine can carry an amount of fertilizer
and rice seed from 40–45kg. With the amount of fertilizer used about 150kg/ha/batch for rice, the
machine only takes about 15 minutes, helping farmers save a lot of time compared to manual fertilizing.
Pest monitoring equipment helps farmers know the density of pests in their rice fields so that they can
request the cooperative to support spraying service by drone in time to reduce damage.

Agricultural Innovation Review in CLV Countries 21