Page 64 - Agricultural innovation

hours after harvest, to maintain the best quality of finished rice products. This application is especially
effective when at peak harvest time, transport vehicles must operate at full capacity. Ensuring the order
and smoothness of hundreds of ships at that time helps greatly reduce greatly post-harvest losses, in
terms of rice grain quality including taste and head rice recovery rate.
Similar to transportation vehicles, combine harvesters as well as labor during the harvest season are
also headaches for farmers. The lack of machinery and labor leads to rice paddy hanging, waiting for
arrangement and from there, farmers are dependent on traders and the “contract” to increase labor prices.
Understanding the difficulties of that time, Loc Troi Group boldly invested in more than 120 combine
harvesters and straw rolling machines, providing harvesting services and organizing straw collection
according to the needs of farmers. In addition, the group’s mechanization department has organized
research and manufactured machines to transport rice from fields to canals and dikes, automatically
weigh rice to the boat and return weighing slips to farmers each day. Weighing trip helps farmers
monitor and control the output of their fields. This proves that transparency in the connection process,
from the supply of agricultural materials, machinery, equipment to field staff, is essential for farmers,
helping farmers manage expenses, and calculate and consider the necessary level of pest treatment.
From there, farmers have a basis to convert from agricultural production to agricultural economics,
where the focus is profit, not productivity. This helps farmers confidently follow the path of sustainable
production, the inevitable path for agriculture, as climate change increasingly impacts production.

f) Research into intensive processing areas, utilizing straw by-products and rice husk ash, turning
them into valuable products, increasing gross profits from rice cultivation�
According to the Department of Crop Production, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development,
each year 43–44 million tons of straw are produced from rice growing activities in Vietnam. In the
past, farmers’ practice was to burn straw after harvest, which not only polluted the air but also lost
a significant amount of organic matter from the fields and increased greenhouse gas emissions. Loc
Troi Agricultural Research Institute (LTI) has been conducting many studies to improve the efficiency
of post-harvest straw treatment. These projects focus on methods to take advantage of the abundant
straw resources in the Mekong Delta:
Animal feed: LTI is collaborating with partners to research a method of fermenting rice straw into
silage for livestock, meeting the demand for food sources for cows and calves in the Mekong Delta.
Organic supplements for the soil: LTI is continuing to perfect the solution of chopping straw after
harvest, spraying the biological product Tricoderma DHCT to promote straw decomposition, creating
an organic source to help improve soil structure, retain moisture and nutrients, while promoting
healthy growth of microflora in the soil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the field.
Mushroom growing: in 2022, LTI organizes a mushroom growing competition on straw substrates,
to create a sustainable mushroom farming process, helping restore the large-scale mushroom growing
industry in the Mekong Delta to serve the domestic market and export.
Producing biochar from rice husks: Project associated with organizations and universities from
countries such as the US, Australia, Japan in the program to support the Mekong Delta to adapt to
climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and establish Carbon credits. The commercialization
of biochar and Carbon credits are also the premise to help businesses contribute to improving the
value of by-products, minimizing negative impacts on the environment.

g) Apply information technology to support farmers
Rice Hospital: Remote rice health care. Developed and put into use in 2020, the Rice Hospital
application is the first digital platform that combines farmers’ field information and agricultural

Agricultural Innovation Review in CLV Countries 57