(VOVWORLD) - Vietnam’s exclusively homegrown smart Insect Monitoring System (IMS) is designed to meet the need for digital transformation in agriculture. The product won the silver Make-in-Vietnam prize in the category Excellent Digital Product in 2021. It was designed and manufactured by RYNAN Technologies Vietnam and employed in 13 provinces and cities nationwide. This year, the Japanese agriculture ministry has allowed the importation of the system to monitor and predict agricultural epidemics.
 An engineer of the RYNAN Technologies Vietnam maintains the insect monitoring network.
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RYNAN Technologies Vietnam plans to export 50 products this year to Japan and the figure is expected to be higher in 2024. The product uses an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to identify the number, density, and types of insects, and gives results on a visual chart.
Thai Nguyen Hoai Thien, manager of the Vietnam Digital Agriculture Platform Eco System (VDAPES) of RYNAN Technologies Vietnam, said that the Make-in-Vietnam technological product clearly shows the balance between harmful pests and beneficial organisms, thereby giving farmers a quick overview of the balance of the ecosystem.
With the smart IMS, farmers can view information and data on smartphones, without having to go to the field looking for insects on every leaf, or trapping insects and counting their numbers in the traditional way.
Farmers wherever they are and at any time can keep a close eye on the status in the fields and the population and activity of the insects.
The system also can help state management agencies collect data, give reports and warnings, and make predictions with high accuracy through the central administration software, said Hoai Thien.
“The IMS is a tool helping farmers monitor pests and beneficial organisms in the fields. AI provides, counts, and offers visualization for managers and farmers to proactively control the development of pests and have timely response plans toward optimizing the output and productivity of crops, minimizing losses, and increasing economic value for agricultural products,” Thien explained.
In addition, according to Thien, when the system is installed on a large scale, it’ll provide a database to manage, make policy, and build a pest map.
RYNAN’s research team has combined state-of-the-art platforms - AI, machine learning and IoT - to identify and analyze data for this product.
The system is run by solar energy, thus ensuring electrical safety, especially when there is heavy rain and wind, and is easily installed in remote areas without grid power. It also has a lightning protective device to shelter it during stormy days.
According to Thien, the system uses AI to automatically identify and count more than 150 different types of insects, including harmful and harmless insects and beneficial organisms on various crops such as rice and fruit trees.
“After the data is collected, screened, sorted, and analyzed, the results will be returned in the form of graphs and visual maps, clearly showing the correlation between harmful pests and beneficial organisms,” said Thien, adding, “The system also makes the most of the edge computing to increase its image processing speed to an almost instantaneous or real-time level. Images are collected and analyzed in order to give an optimal result.”
Based on the information collected, the system gives warnings and predictions about the insect situation so that farmers can choose methods for treatment through the central management software SaaS (Software as a Service).
Thanks to the use of solar energy, the system can be continuously operated on a large area like rice and crop fields, and farming areas without depending on the national power grid.
 A smart Insect Monitoring System developed by RYNAN. |
With such outstanding advantageous features, the system has been highly appreciated in many provinces and cities. To date, 60 monitoring stations have been installed in Bac Lieu, Can Tho, Dong Thap, Kien Giang, Lam Dong, Nghe An, and Tra Vinh provinces.
Ly Duc of Minh Hoa commune in Chau Thanh district, An Giang province said that the product offers practical benefits to farmers.
“First it lures insects by a suitable wavelength light and uses AI technology to automatically count the number of insects, so it is very accurate. Second, the collected data is sent to a phone app, so everyone can see and evaluate the number of beneficial or harmful insects to decide whether or not to spray pesticides,” said Duc.
A farmer goes to the rice field, for example, and finds there are lots of brown plant-hoppers. Without the smart IMS, he will spray pesticides immediately, and may accidentally kill beneficial insects. With the product, he’ll know the difference in the amount of harmful versus beneficial pests. If the number of beneficial organisms is higher, it’s not necessary to use pesticides.
RYNAN's smart IMS is a market-exclusive high-tech solution. The product entering the Japanese market, one of very demanding markets in the world, proves that Vietnamese high-tech products are reaching world-class levels.
Dr. Nguyen Thanh My, a Vietnamese-Canadian scientist, CEO of RYNAN Technologies, said that the system and other high-tech agricultural products developed by the company are helping to build an ecosystem of digital products for Vietnam’s agriculture.