The livelihoods of millions of rice farmers in Vietnam's Mekong Delta have become increasingly vulnerable due to reduced rainfall and the resulting water stress. In this context, promoting water-saving practices, such as alternate wetting and drying technology, is vital to sustain rice production and enhance people's resilience to climatic changes in the Delta. Since this technology is not widely applied in the region, this study hypothesized that a precise water measurement using the Internet of Things technology could facilitate the uptake of the alternate wetting and drying rice cultivation practice. The study applied a rigorous research design to assess the differential benefits of applying the technology with sensors. Participating farmers were divided into three treatment groups that produced rice using either the continuously flooded irrigation technique, manual alternate wetting and drying tubes, or tubes with sensors. The on-farm trials' results showed that the precise water level measurements with the sensors allowed the farmers to maximize the benefits from alternate wetting and drying irrigation. The experimental results indicated an additional 13-20% of water savings over manual alternate wetting and drying. The technology also reduced irrigation energy costs by 25% and moderately enhanced rice yields by 2-11%. This pilot was the first to demonstrate in a large-scale open-field trial that it is feasible and beneficial for smallholder farmers to apply cutting-edge Internet of Things technology to increase water use efficiency in their rice farms. The technology adoption would significantly contribute to sustaining the agriculture-based livelihoods of people in the Delta.
In recent years, reduced rainfall and water stress have threatened the livelihoods of millions of rice producers in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta (VMD). To enhance the rice farmers’ resilience capacity to climate change, it is essential to introduce and promote water-saving cultivation practices such as alternate wetting and drying (AWD) in rice production. Unfortunately, it is fact that the application of this technology in the region is very limited. We, therefore, hypothesized in this study that the ease of Internet of Things (IoT) technology and accurate water measurements could facilitate the uptake of AWD. To confirm this hypothesis, we investigated both the technical and financial feasibility of deploying IoT technology in open-field conditions. This paper focuses on the assessments of costs and benefits of investing in IoT AWD compared to the least cost manual one. We find that the investment is financially viable for smallholder farmers with plot sizes of over 2 hectares and conditions conducive to applying AWD (the case of individual farmers in Can Tho). The assessments also show that the larger economies of scale would make the IoT investment highly profitable (the case of an agricultural company in An Giang). The analysis, however, reveals that the efficiency gains of investing in IoT technology cannot compensate for poor AWD conditions, and thus smallholder farmers in the Tra Vinh case should instead apply the low-cost alternative of manual AWD.
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