5.2 Vinaphone-managed mobile-based farm assistant

Vinaphone-managed mobile-based farm assistant

Vinaphone, a Vietnamese state telecom company, launched a service that turns mobile phones into “farm assistants,” providing agricultural information services (such as weather forecasts, plant disease alerts, guidelines on government policies, and advice on plant diseases) through a low-cost monthly package, delivered through social media. Similar services exist in Indonesia, through Villages.

Source: Green 2018.

extension system by wide-scale implementation of online agriculture information platforms and farmer-friendly information stations. Details on ICT use for smallholder services in East Asia are provided in appendix E (box E.1).

Blockchain technology for productivity Blockchain technology6 offers new opportunities to improve agricultural productivity, along with inclusivity, traceability, and the means to monitor compliance with environmental regulations, green or carbon bonds, and food safety (box 5.3). Initially born out of a need for a more decentralized financial system, blockchain applications are finding multiple innovative uses in financial, manufacturing, health, energy, and government sectors, as well as in the agriculture sector. Most applications in agriculture are in a pilot stage or in the early commercialization stage (appendix E) (FAO 2019a). Blockchain applications are also being pursued to improve transparency and traceability in agricultural supply chains.

Blockchain promises to deliver a transparent, decentralized, secure transaction process and may reduce transaction costs. However, blockchain technology is not yet mainstream, and commercial applications take time to reach the market. China is experimenting with blockchain applications in food traceability, and many other East Asian countries have high aspirations to develop this area as well (for instance, in Vietnam, box 6.6 in chapter 6). Implementation of blockchain-based applications still suffers from traditional challenges such as lack of or poor infrastructure, failures of interoperability, and other technology issues. Regulators around the world are actively trying to define guidelines for distributed ledger usage, suggesting that this technology can bring about a change in traditional processes if key building blocks needed to sustain the solutions are implemented (FAO 2019a).

High-tech scientific research, including biotechnology, is essential for improving the resilience of agri-food systems to changing climate, diseases, pests, and degradation of natural resources. Despite advancements in ICT-based solutions, high-tech science still has a role to play. The current challenges with climate risk and environmental degradation have created a need for more advanced scientific endeavors in inputs, especially the genomic basis of crops, as part of a menu of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) approaches.7 A diverse range of