The agriculture sector provides a livelihood to 30 percent of Vietnamese workers. Farm produce often faces difficulties when exported to the world market. The export prices are often lower than products of the same kinds from other countries.. 

Tran Huyen Dinh, chair of the Fintech Application Committee under the Vietnam Blockchain Association (VBA) said the problems can be resolved through new technologies, including blockchain.

Dinh said startups can apply blockchain to trace the origin of produce. The technology ensures accuracy of information about produce. With information transparency, farmers can increase productivity and the value of farm produce.

He cited the case of one company that has applied blockchain in coffee production. The company stores all information about water, humidity and influential factors during the farming process and po the information on blockchain. When produce reaches end users, they check information to know the quality of the produce.

“Transparency of produce thanks to traceability will make buyers feel secure about the quality. A blockchain application is not costly,” he said.

Blockchain has also been applied in the production of other agricultural products, such as rice and seafood. However, the technology has been applied on a small scale.

Dinh said it will need more time to conduct more research before applying the technology in a large scale. Once deployed, blockchain usage will proceed very fast.

However, he pointed out that there are legal barriers to the blockchain application which causes startups to hesitate to expand their operation models.

It is the lack of a perfect legal framework for blockchain utilization which has prompte many startups to register their business overseas rather than in Vietnam.

In order to deploy blockchain’s apps, it is necessary to solve legal problems first.

Blockchain is a complicated technology. However, farmers don’t need to learn too much about the technology, because the work is reserved for startups in agriculture. The businesses will act as a bridge to help farmers use technology to increase commodity values.

Tam An