Science and technology have become indispensable companions across the modern agricultural value chain, from production and harvest to the trade of goods. In parallel, digital transformation is reshaping the entire sector through the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, big data, and high performance computing (HPC), opening significant headroom for growth.

Data from the General Statistics Office (Ministry of Finance) show that gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2025 was estimated to increase by 6.93 percent year on year.

Of this, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries grew 3.74 percent, contributing 6.09 percent to the overall increase in value added across the economy. This is considered a relatively strong expansion for the agriculture sector.

Science and technology as a launchpad

Starting from its core in sugarcane, Thanh Thanh Cong Joint Stock Company (TTC AgriS) has expanded into high value agricultural products such as culinary spices and biological formulations, with nearly 200 products exported to 69 countries.

TTC AgriS’s agricultural solutions have generated sustainable “soil health,” improved crop yields, and boosted production efficiency for farmers. The company provides stable jobs for more than 40,000 direct and indirect workers throughout its chain.

Chief Executive Officer Thai Van Chuyen said TTC AgriS is building an integrated, end-to-end model from raw material areas to production and commerce on a technology platform aimed at circular agriculture and emissions reduction, with a net zero target by 2035.

Since 2018, AgriS has gradually operated the Agri App system to manage raw material zones and applied blockchain for traceability. As a result, raw material area yields have increased by 15 to 30 percent thanks to standardized and digitized processes, and more than 60 percent of logistics and trade activities have been digitized.

At the same time, TTC AgriS is deploying a smart agricultural economy model on an integrated AgTech-FoodTech-FinTech platform with three pillars: smart nutrition, smart traceability, and smart connectivity. This approach has shaped agricultural zones that meet whole-chain traceability standards, enabling products to access markets with high demands for ESG and data transparency such as the European Union and Japan.

Science and technology have also been a launchpad for value in animal husbandry, defining the distinctive mark of Dabaco Group Vietnam. Deputy CEO Nguyen Van Tue said the group is a pioneer in applying biotechnology, digital technology, and innovation across every production link; investing in modern production lines and smart management software; and delivering step-change gains in productivity and quality. Dabaco uses AI to analyze husbandry data, forecast disease outbreaks, plan time-to-market, and balance inventories to optimize production and minimize risk.

An electronic traceability system is applied at all farms to record the entire husbandry process, ensuring full transparency and strengthening customer trust, thereby creating a major competitive edge. In 2024, Dabaco became a billion-dollar-revenue enterprise and provided jobs for more than 10,000 employees and workers.

Breakthrough growth across the sector

According to Le Phu Ha, Director of Digital Transformation (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment), recent years have seen clear improvements in digitalization, IT application, and digital technologies to raise the value of the digital economy across agriculture, forestry, and fisheries.

Many enterprises, cooperatives, and households have adopted automatic and drip irrigation systems and automated climate control in greenhouses and net houses, helping save labor and water while boosting crop yields.

In forestry, barcode-based DND technology has been used in seed management; large-scale wood processing plants adopt automation and robot-connected equipment; GIS and satellite remote sensing technologies support early detection and warning software for forest fires; and IoT is applied to 24/7 automated monitoring of water quality in aquaculture. Together, these advances generated significant value for agriculture, with the sector growing 3.3 percent in 2024.

Thus, technology and digital transformation are not merely props elevating large enterprises. Across each field and “nook and cranny” of agriculture, dizzying changes have been recorded, lifting production from backward to spectacularly resurgent with proud results.

This is evidenced by the latest 2024 figures for key commodities: rice output reached 43.52 million tons, with 9.03 million tons exported for a turnover of 5.75 billion USD; cashew kernel exports totaled 723.8 thousand tons with 4.38 billion USD in revenue, maintaining Vietnam’s position as the world’s largest exporter of cashew kernels; coffee harvest reached 2.01 million tons, with 1.34 million tons exported worth 5.48 billion USD, reaffirming Vietnam as the largest producer and exporter of robusta coffee; fruit and vegetable exports hit a record 7.12 billion USD, while output of several key fruit trees posted strong growth.

For rice, a traditional and strategic pillar, Tran Ngoc Thach, Director of the Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute, said that 50 years ago the Mekong Delta mainly grew local seasonal rice varieties with low yields, producing only about 5 million tons per year.

Today, the figure has reached 25 million tons per year. The institute, together with units and enterprises engaged in breeding, is proud that most rice varieties in the region now come from hybridization.

“We now have a relatively strong portfolio of varieties. In breeding, we continue to select popular varieties and improve pest and disease resistance through hybridization while preserving grain quality and the core characteristics of each variety. In parallel, we are applying new techniques and technologies to create varietal lines for various market segments, with the goal of having a suitable variety for every rice product need,” Tran Ngoc Thach emphasized.

Nhan Dan