From a family with a tradition of farming, although they are civil servants, Tran Duc Nam (44 years old) and Dang Thu Hien (38 years old) still can not let go of the fertile basalt Red Land Garden in LoC Quy village, Xuan tho commune (Dalat, Lam Dong) that relatives have cultivated for decades.
In the past, after the dissolution of the department, the husband and wife of Nam had to turn all over to water, fertilize the carrot garden, potatoes of the family in Xuan tho commune. As the flower industry grew, they switched to greenhouse flower cultivation for higher incomes. From the end of 2018, your flower farm began to turn to strawberry cultivation under Internet of Things (IoT) technology to reduce labor, supplies, reduce the time of presence on the farm, but bring many times higher economic efficiency.
He said he knew IoT was also a blessing. In early 2018, during a short-term study in Japan in the area of automatic strawberry cultivation using IoT technology, he found that in Dalat there are many advantages to growing strawberries but have not been fully utilized. Mr. Nam convinced his wife to convert 2,000 m2 of Home Garden to grow strawberries according to this modern technology. “After my wife “approves”, I go to buy IoT equipment, buy strawberry varieties imported from Japan, and then write strawberry care software fully automatic. Then, hire a programming unit, write the app on the phone to match the strawberry tree and perfect for the whole system” ” Nam said excitedly.
After 3 months of cultivation according to IoT technology, the first strawberry crop for harvesting is very positive. Thanks to high-quality strawberries, beautifully harvested to sell out there. The effectiveness of strawberry cultivation according to IoT technology is clearly seen, so far the family’s 2 hectare flower farm has moved completely to strawberry cultivation.
Although planting up to 2 hectares of strawberries, the owners and spouses do not need to be in the garden, but still know how their strawberries grow. Mr. Nam shared that the farm was divided into several areas for management. For example, the area 1 strawberry tree is lacking water or high humidity, the chip installed at the point where the sensor device will tell about the server apparatus. From there, the server will automatically activate the irrigation system for the water-deficient area.
With abnormal cases such as overheating, morning fog, the amount of fertilizer deficiency… then the warning system will send a signal right into the phone of the owner of the garden to timely process. As a result, the farm only needs to use 14 workers to harvest berries daily, canned for sale and once a month prune the leaves of berries to grow fruit.
According to Anh Nam, investment capital for IoT strawberry farms is quite high, in addition to IoT equipment must invest in greenhouses, iron truss for strawberry growing substrate 1.2 m high, irrigation system, fertilizer automatic ICO cost about 6 billion VND/ha, but can be used for 5 years. The cultivation process saves 30% of water, fertilizer, EC indicators, input PH, output accuracy to 95%.
According to garden owners, strawberries for harvest all year round, the lowest months are obtained about 80 kg/day/ha, in the autumn season over 150 kg/day/ha. The average yield reaches about 36 tons/ha/year. Strawberries are packed in 2 kinds of 0.25 kg or 0.5 kg boxes with the brand “Nam Anh ” for export to supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City.HCMC, West, Da Nang, Binh Duong, Tay Ninh… VietGAP certified products, Ocop, used brand certified “Strawberry Dalat”.
Currently the price of strawberries from 250,000-500,000 VND / kg, depending on the size left. With 1 hectare of strawberries cultivated according to IoT technology, the family has an income of less than 10 billion VND/year.
A source: https://thanhnien.vn
