Tuoi Tre Startup Award: From Israel, returning to work with Vietnamese farmers with AGRILINK AI

Bui Hai Yen (left) discusses agriculture with farmers in Lam Dong province - Photo: NVCC

Connecting agricultural knowledge for Vietnamese farmers

Born into a poor farming family in Nghe An , Hai Yen was always given priority in studying and her mother always told her "you can be poor in material things, but not poor in knowledge".

Having spent her childhood working hard in the fields, Yen was fortunate to have the opportunity to study in the leading agricultural country, Israel. She said she witnessed things she had never seen before there.

While farmers in their homeland still depend on the weather and do manual work, even in the middle of the arid desert in Israel, they can still create green fields.

Precision drip irrigation systems, smart farms and data from soil, crops to climate are all managed by technology. Where farmers are not only producers but also real agricultural economic managers.

“It is that contrast that bothers me. Vietnam is rich in land, water, resources, and people, but without knowledge and technology, farmers will always struggle,” Yen pondered.

Hai Yen chose to return. She believes that Vietnamese farmers deserve access to the best of the world.

Hai Yen started her journeys across Vietnam to listen and understand the people. Sometimes she went to the Dien Bien mountains where people grow macadamia on sloping land, sometimes she went to the Mekong Delta with fruit-laden gardens but always worried about "good harvest, low price".

"Vietnamese farmers not only need materials or finance but also need knowledge, technology and a fairer market. And that's why I created AGRILINK," Hai Yen said.

Bui Hai Yen (white shirt, middle) supports mango farmers in cultivating mangoes to meet export standards - Photo: NVCC

Raising knowledge, reducing risks and increasing value for Vietnamese agriculture

AGRILINK AI agricultural knowledge platform provides knowledge, farming techniques, financial management and market forecasting. At the same time, AI-personalized content for farmers, cooperatives and agricultural enterprises.

The platform helps users make accurate decisions, reduce crop risks, save production costs to improve productivity and economic efficiency. AGRILINK focuses on knowledge and comprehensive solutions for sustainable agricultural development.

AGRILINK automates the collection and analysis of weather, crop and market price data, reducing processing time from days to minutes.

In addition, the system personalizes information for each farmer and cooperative, helping them immediately receive suitable solutions instead of searching and testing by themselves.

“AI supports optimizing the supply chain of materials and agricultural products by accurately forecasting demand, reducing inventory, loss and intermediate costs. Thereby improving the ability to make quick decisions based on real-time reports and predictions,” Ms. Hai Yen informed.

With AGRILINK, crop planning time is reduced from 5-7 days to less than 1 day. Likewise, material costs are reduced by 30-40%, productivity increases by 8-12% compared to traditional methods, inventory time is reduced by 20-30%, and the selling price of agricultural products is 5-10% higher on average.

The founding team is committed to providing 100% of users with real-time weather, price, and technical data updates. Currently, AGRILINK has provided over 50 products from suppliers, reached over 5,000 farmers and cooperatives, and signed 10 agricultural product consumption contracts.

In the short term, AGRILINK focuses on perfecting the knowledge platform and building an online agricultural community with at least 10,000 members. The platform will integrate basic AI to suggest knowledge, provide production guidance, and analyze the market.

In the next 3-5 years, AGRILINK aims to become the leading agricultural knowledge platform in Vietnam, expand to Southeast Asia and develop comprehensive AI with the ability to forecast crops, agricultural prices and propose optimal solutions for each locality.

Combining knowledge - materials - agricultural product consumption in an ecosystem

AGRILINK builds a closed agricultural ecosystem, combining knowledge - materials - agricultural product consumption. In particular, AGRILINK AI provides a database and smart consulting tools on farming techniques, crop management, food safety and international standards (GlobalGAP, Organic, HACCP...).

The platform then directly connects farmers with genuine, traceable supplies, ensuring compliance with environmental and safety requirements of export markets.

“AGRILINK AI integrates traceability tools, quality control and smart trading platforms to connect agricultural products with international markets.

The system automatically compares product standards with the requirements of each market (US, EU, Israel, Japan, etc.) to help Vietnamese agricultural products increase their competitiveness," said Ms. Yen.