 IT engineer-turned farmer Vu Duc Tuan. (Photo: VOV) |
At first, Tuan faced lots of challenges, especially in farm management. This motivated him to design a software program called FarmGo, using a Digital Journal App.
“Having worked in husbandry for 2 years, I realized that a tool was needed to deal with the work overload. I turned to IT for a way to facilitate agricultural work. After some success, I have replicated my model to help farmers better manage their farm work,” said Tuan.
FarmGo is a versatile and user-friendly app. It integrates all the phases of the livestock sector, including livestock and poultry management, sales management, production of animal food, and labor management. FarmGo now has thousands of users who pay a subscription fee as low as 1 USD per month.
It took time for Tuan’s software to become popular because most farmers still worked in a traditional way, as they had always done. Tuan tried many ways to get farmers to apply IT to their agricultural production: providing free consultancy, providing free instruction, and providing his software free of charge.
Le Thi Khoa, a chicken raiser in Quang Yen district, says her work is now much easier thanks to FarmGo. “I used to raise chickens in the traditional way, by keeping a journal. Then, Tuan introduced me to his software and patiently taught me how to use it. Now I find it very useful for my work.”
Vu Tien Duong is raising 250 pigs in Quang Yen town. He now has the FarmGo app on his smart phone.
“I used to work very hard, cleaning the barns, feeding the animals, then keeping a daily record on paper, which could get lost or ruined by rainy weather. Using FarmGo, I can update my work anytime, anywhere. The workload has been greatly reduced and so has the cost. The software also updates me with disease prevention warnings and enables me to connect with other farmers to share our husbandry experience,” said Duong.
 Tuan uses FarmGo to manage his 3-hectare shrimp farm in Quang Yen town in Quang Ninh province. (Photo: VOV) |
The value of FarmGo was soon recognized. The software made the final round of the contest “Searching for ideas and creative startup projects in 2023”.
Bui Thi Quynh Nga, member of a start-up club in Quang Yen district, said, “Tuan is an active member of the Quang Yen start-up club. He wants to help local farmers prosper through high-tech agriculture. We really want to spread his start-up spirit to other young people to improve productivity and income.”
Tuan plans to develop more apps to boost product sales and enable consumers to trace the origin of products.