As of April 2026, agricultural drones operating across Vietnam exceed 4,000 units, with over 3,000 in the Mekong Delta alone covering a 1.5-million-hectare rice-growing belt. AI (artificial intelligence) disease detection has reached 93% accuracy, and the smart-agriculture infrastructure in which the government has invested over US$2 billion has begun to produce concrete results. This report conveys the field of Vietnam, where precision agriculture is shifting from an 'experimental stage' to an 'implementation stage,' through data and the voices of farmers.
The state of drone adoption — 4,000 units changing the landscape of farm work
Vietnam's holdings of agricultural drones increased 300% from 2020 to 2025, surpassing 4,000 units. Electric drones led by China's XAG P100 Pro are the mainstay, with a price range of US$15,000–50,000 (about ¥2.25–7.5 million) per unit. One unit can spray 60–70 hectares a day, achieving efficiency more than 60 times that of manual work (1 hectare a day).
A 28-year-old rice farmer in Dong Thap Province introduced the XAG P100 on a 30-hectare paddy. Pesticide spraying that would take five days by hand was completed in four hours, cutting chemical use by 30%. Based on this success, Dong Thap Province established a 'digital agricultural cooperative' and launched a drone-operator training program for young people.
Background — the government's over-US$2 billion investment and an agritech ecosystem of 115 companies
The Vietnamese government has built up total investment in smart agriculture to over US$2 billion. There are 115 agritech startups active domestically, of which 12 have raised external funds and 4 are at Series A or later stages. The flagship Techcoop carried out a US$70 million Series A funding round and set a 2026 revenue target of US$360 million. Through a payment platform and a market-access platform, it supports small and mid-sized farmers' entry into exporting.
On the infrastructure side, fiber-optic reach in rural areas is 82.3% and 6,500 5G base stations are operating, so the practical environment for IoT sensors and cloud platforms is taking shape. Users of cloud agriculture platforms exceed 20,000, and more than 1,000 coffee farms have already introduced the Agri ERP system.
Implementation of AI technology — detection accuracy and concrete results
A tree-disease detection system developed by TMA Solutions analyzes drone aerial images with the AlexNet and VGG deep-learning models, achieving 93% detection accuracy. In monitoring deforestation of coffee plantations too, it identifies illegal logging with 93% accuracy. A durian-ripeness AI has reached 94.5% accuracy, automating the judgment of the right harvest time.
In IoT smart irrigation, solar-powered sensors monitor water levels in real time, and Pham Van Tuan, a rice farmer in Can Tho Province, says: 'From home, I can check the water level of the paddy on my smartphone and turn the pump on and off.' This technology has cut water use by 13–40%.
Vietnam's precision agriculture progress in data
| Indicator | Figure | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural drones in operation | over 4,000 units | Up 300% from 2020 to 2025 |
| Drone spraying capacity | 60–70 ha/day | Over 60 times manual |
| Chemical reduction rate | 30% | Dong Thap Province result |
| Labor reduction rate | 50〜75% | Spraying and fertilizing work |
| AI disease-detection accuracy | 93% | Developed by TMA Solutions |
| Durian ripeness-judgment accuracy | 94.5% | Trained on 2,595 leaf images |
| Water saving from IoT irrigation | 13〜40% | 13–20% with the AWD method |
| Yield improvement | Up to 15% | With comprehensive smart-agriculture adoption |
| Farmer income improvement | 19% | Results for farmers with comprehensive adoption |
| Low-emission rice project area | 354,000 ha | About twice the original target of 180,000 ha |
Voices from the field — the reality as told by farmers and operators
Pham Van Tuan, a rice farmer in Can Tho Province, says: 'Thanks to smart irrigation, I no longer need to patrol the paddy in the middle of the night. If the water level drops, the app notifies me.'
A farmer in Binh Thuan Province running an intercropped durian-and-coffee farm (9.9 ha) reports that introducing drones shortened spraying work from over 10 days to 2.5 days.
On the other hand, there are voices pointing to challenges: 'An IoT sensor is US$500–2,000 each, and introduction across a whole farm costs US$120,000–500,000. It's out of reach for smallholders' (an agricultural extension officer in the Mekong Delta). 70% of Vietnam's farmers are smallholders with less than 0.5 hectares of operating area, and the high initial investment is a bottleneck to the spread of smart agriculture.
Impact on Japanese agricultural and food buyers
The progress of Vietnam's smart agriculture holds three meanings for Japanese buyers. First, as the precision of traceability rises, proving the safety of imported agricultural products becomes easier. In the low-emission rice project, 'full-chain traceability' from soil sampling to certification is already implemented.
Second, the case in which 500 tonnes of Vietnamese low-emission rice made its first landing in the Japanese market through a collaboration between Trung An and the MURASE Group is a signal that exports of environmentally conscious agricultural products to Japan are starting in earnest.
Third, the automation of quality control through AI reduces the risk of quality variability in large-volume procurement. The durian-ripeness AI and the coffee quality-control ERP have high affinity with the quality standards that Japanese food companies require.
Industry ripple effects — 1 million hectares of low-emission rice and carbon credits
The biggest success story of precision agriculture is the 'one million hectare high-quality low-emission rice project.' As of the end of 2025 it reached 354,000 hectares, about twice the original target. Seven companies have been granted the right to use the 'Vietnam Green Low-Emission Rice' trademark, and 19,200 tonnes of certified rice has been produced. A further 800,000 hectares of expansion is planned by 2030.
In four Mekong Delta provinces (An Giang, Ca Mau, Dong Thap, Tay Ninh), 50-hectare-scale pilot models were implemented in the 2025–2026 winter-spring crop, and the demonstration area is expected to expand to a combined 10,300 hectares.
Practical information
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Main drone makers | XAG (China), DJI Agras (China) |
| Drone price range | US$15,000–50,000 (about ¥2.25–7.5 million) |
| IoT sensor unit price | US$500–2,000 (about ¥75,000–300,000) |
| Payback period | 1–2 years |
| Main agritech companies | Techcoop、TMA Solutions、Enfarm、Mimosa Technology |
| Total government investment | over US$2 billion (about ¥300 billion) |
| Information source | TMA Solutions、VietnamPlus、vietnam.vn、AgTech Navigator |
Summary and next actions
Vietnam's precision agriculture, with concrete figures of 4,000 drones, 93% AI detection accuracy and 354,000 ha of low-emission rice, shows it has entered the 'implementation stage.' The government's over-US$2 billion investment and its group of 115 startups are tackling the biggest challenge: transferring technology to the smallholders who make up 70%.
For Japanese agriculture and food players, it is a good opportunity to begin in earnest considering the procurement of Vietnamese agricultural products with strengthened traceability and environmental certification. Now that exports of low-emission rice to Japan have started, similar moves are expected to accelerate in other items such as coffee and durian.
Related Articles
- Techcoop FarmNet — expanding an agricultural platform with US$117.5 million in financing
- Vietnamese coffee farmers switch to durian — MARD's response
- The full picture of HAGL's 20,000-ha coffee farm plan
Source: TMA Solutions (2026), VietnamPlus, vietnam.vn, AgTech Navigator, FreshPlaza
