Programme connects tech startups, agri firms

Nguyễn Hồng Đăng Khoa, director of Trí Nguyễn Farm, talks about high-tech needs for his farm at a Business Matching programme event held on October 24 in HCM City. — VNS Photo Gia Lộc

Ho Chi Minh City — A Business Matching Programme that connects agricultural enterprises which need technologies with tech startups was introduced in HCM City on October 24 at a special event. 

Through the programme, enterprises that need help in cultivation, preservation, harvesting and market entry can consult tech startups.

Phạm Công Chính, director of Tám Khỏe Clean Vegetable Farm in HCM City, said that he needed a system which can help forecast and discover pestilent insects for vegetables.

Chính said at the introduction of the Business Matching programme event on October 24 held at SIHUB in HCM City to help connect between agricultural enterprises and technology startups.

The farm includes an aquaponics model in which fish and vegetables are grown together in a closed network and another model using hydroponics, a method that replaces traditional soil with mineral-rich water solution.

Chính said: “A system for controlling disease among fish, keeping track of fish growth, and analyzing nutrition in fish for growth, is needed.”

Nguyễn Hồng Đăng Khoa, director of Trí Nguyễn Farm, said the areas of membrane houses in cultivation have increased and become common in high-tech agriculture.

“However, after several years of use, the membranes are now dusty, affecting effectiveness in cultivation,” Khoa said, adding that startups could conduct research and create robot-washing membranes.

A representative of tech startups said that he had created a system to forecast and discover pestilent insects that attack vegetables, which the Tám Khỏe Clean Vegetable Farm said it needed.

The Business Matching Programme was organised by the Business Startup Support Centre in co-operation with Digital Agriculture Association Việt Nam and Vietnam Private Sector Forum.

It was officially launched nationwide on October 10.

The organisers are in the process of selecting 20 excellent candidates for 10 agricultural enterprises which need technologies to assist their cultivation, harvest, preservation and market entry.

The programme has attracted more than 35 technology startups and agricultural enterprises so far.

Trương Lý Hoàng Phi, director of Business Startup Support Centre, said the programme was expected to reduce the gap in trust between enterprises that need technology solutions for cultivation and startups that can provide technology.

Nguyễn Đức Tùng, deputy general secretary of the Digital Agriculture Association Việt Nam, said that many agricultural technologies being used by enterprises had become outdated.