The Internet of Things: Can a Tree Talk to You?

Farm productivity is essential for meeting the growing demand for food that is fueled by rapid population growth around the world. Farming practices can obtain the greatest optimization and profitability through "smart agriculture" which adapts farming techniques to specific conditions via enabling technologies that are often based on an Internet of Things (IoT). This paper presents a case study of an IoT innovation in an unexpected location - a rural farm in Vietnam. A practical, low-cost, and environmental friendly system was developed that help farmers manage their crops with more precision in the first IoT application for the Vietnamese agriculture industry. The pilot implementation were promising and farmer feedback was positive. After some modifications, the system has been widely deployed in different provinces in Vietnam. We believe that the system would be able to help millions of farmers to get on the IoT train and that adopting IoT to initiate smart agriculture in Vietnam has sent a strong message "To be successful, the technological innovation has to integrate into local culture".