HCM City will build a digital map of safe vegetable, livestock and seafood farming areas in the city this year to help consumers choose the right food, said Nguyen Phuoc Trung, director of the HCMC Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Nguyen Phuoc Trung, director of the HCMC Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, speaks at a meeting on the implementation of the smart city development project last Friday 

The map will provide information about locations of farms, soil, climate and agricultural products. Farms will be fitted with global positioning system (GPS) devices so that map users can supervise the plant and animal quarantine and receive forecasts about farm produce output in any given period, said Trung.

As a result, enterprises can easily purchase and distribute agricultural goods in the local market and export the products as well.

The department has plans to coordinate with the natural resources and environment sector to set up sensors in the city to analyze water quality, climate and tides to support farmers in cultivation, Trung informed.

Between 2010 and 2017, HCMC invested a staggering VND47.5 trillion in the agriculture sector, helping production value soar 2.7 times.

The city currently has more than 250 hectares under vegetable farming, supplies breeding pigs for many other provinces and ships ornamental fish and fresh vegetables abroad.

Over the past six years, the city has applied advanced technologies to nearly 1,900 hectares of vegetables, ornamentals and cantaloupes, increasing production value by VND10 trillion. The city has also adopted Israeli technology to hike the average milk output per cow to 24.5 kilograms a day, equaling output at large dairy firms in Vietnam.

Regarding the smart city development project, Trung said the city would call for investments in a smart city operating center, a center for socio-economic development project simulation, an information security center and a center for shared database.

SGT