At the Lotte Startup Awards 2016 ceremony, where ten projects received prizes, the ideas and features of the Hachi Group’s agriculture project made a strong impression on those in the audience.

Recognizing the increasing demand for safe vegetables, founder and CEO Mr. Dang Xuan Truong and his associates created a planting method for vegetables using a hydroponic system.

Roots of an idea 

Mr. Truong studied information technology at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology and had never given too much thought to the agriculture sector. 

But after talking to friends who studied agriculture he realized there was potential in applying information technology in the sector. 

“Unclean and low quality food seems to be everywhere at the moment, so I really wanted to apply technology to resolve these problems,” he said. He then met Ms. Hoang Yen Mai, who has a Masters in Agriculture. 

When he told her about his ideas, she was excited and decided to join the group. The other members joined soon after and, at present, there are six members of the Hachi Group, including Mr. Truong, founder and CEO Ms. Mai, co-founder and agriculture expert Mr. Vu Thanh Dat, co-founder and IOS Developer Mr. Dang Van Hien, Android developer Mr. Nguyen Van Quan, and co-founder, hardware engineer and marketing executive Ms. Nguyen Thi Xuan.

As with other startups in the early stages, the Hachi Group had to address a number of difficulties, the first of which related to capital, as high-tech agriculture projects generally require large amounts of money for developing hardware, purchasing agricultural equipment, and developing the app on mobile phones. 

The second challenge was improving and officially commercializing the app, as they lacked experience in this regard. Fortunately they sought out Vietnam Silicon Valley (VSV) for support, which provided initial capital for Hachi to complete a model of the app and also consulted on its commercialization.

Mr. Truong said its Smart Hydroponic System features three parts: an app for mobile phones with Android or IOS operating systems, Internet of Things (IoT) hardware, and a normal hydroponic system. 

The mobile app can control environmental parameters in humidity, temperature, and light, while the IoT hardware connects the hydroponic system with the mobile app, controls the pumps, and sends data on the environment to the server. 

The system is an IoT solution, using sensors to monitor environmental parameters, with data then sent to the mobile app.

It is a breakthrough in agriculture in Vietnam because local people grow by hand under traditional methods, and productivity can be largely dependent upon nature. Moreover, large land plots are needed, which can be an issue for city-dwellers. 

“Convenient, smart and useful” describe the system. Although Vietnam already has smart software on the market for planting vegetables, Hachi’s Smart Hydroponic System provides other outstanding features. 

The most outstanding is that hydroponic methods don’t require land for planting vegetables and can be used at home. Customers can set up suitable moisture, temperature and light for various vegetables, and instead of sucking nutrients from soil, vegetables receives nutrients from a formula and water. All steps are conducted by smartphone. 

Another competitive feature is its price. According to Mr. Truong, most smart agriculture equipment is imported from Israel or Japan and can be quite expensive, while most Vietnamese customers are unable or unwilling to pay such high prices. 

For VND5 million ($220) to VND10 million ($440) for the farming app and VND2 million ($90) to VND3 million ($130) for the household app, produce can be grown affordably. The information on the Hachi system is also written in Vietnamese, making it easy for local customers to understand. 

“It can increase harvests by up to 50 per cent and cut harvest time to 30 per cent of what is usually required,” Mr. Truong said.

After a year of developing the app and one month after officially commercializing it, Hachi has reached several significant milestones, including being named as the “Best Agriculture Project” at Startupwheel 2016 and the “Most Potential Startup Project” at the Lotte Awards 2016. Most recently it secured a trip to the US to visit Silicon Valley, at Techfest 2016.

Application and ambition

Hachi’s app is used in 50 places around Vietnam at present and has won favor among customers. Ms. Tran Dao Hanh, a 32-year-old office worker in Hanoi, said that “the product is so convenient because all of the information on the vegetables appears on my smartphone.” 

She spends just 15 minutes a day caring for her vegetables, which is much less than for a traditional vegetable plot. “I can fully control everything when I’m not at home and don’t have to worry about the effect of nature on my vegetables.”

When asked about the price of Hachi’s app, she smiled and said that “in the beginning I was a little wary of buying the app as I didn’t know what it could do. But it was the right choice.” 

Compared to the cost of buying vegetables at the market, the price of vegetables grown with the Hachi app is cheaper and they are safer.

Ms. Hanh added that she had to blend the nutrients, which is only thing she is not pleased about because, sometimes, it can difficult to add the right measurements. “The Hachi Group should improve this aspect to make it a better product in the future,” she said.

Mr. Truong has indeed set up detailed plans for the future of the Smart Hydroponic System. First and foremost, Hachi will improve the products and their features. Secondly, they will extend their market to cities and provinces such as Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, and Quang Ninh province.

 They hope to make the product available to a wide range of customers and improve the system for farms next year.

VN Economic Times