Nong Lac Digitalizes Trust in Agricultural Products
From field data to agricultural transactions, the Nong Lac project developed by a group of students from Yersin University of Dalat addresses a fundamental question: How can buyers know how products are created, how can growers prove the value of what they produce, and how can both parties become more proactive against market fluctuations?
From the Reality of Bumper Crops and Falling Prices
The project is carried out by students Phan Duc Huy, Nguyen Thi Tram Anh, Dinh Thi Ngoc Bich, Nguyen Van Phu, and Nguyen Huu Kien, spanning the fields of Agritech, Fintech, and Social Impact. Winning second prize at the 2026 Rural Youth Startup Project competition marks a milestone in the team's journey to bring this idea into reality.
Phan Duc Huy, team leader of Nong Lac, concisely states the motivation behind the project: "The pain of farmers is when crops are abundant but prices drop." From that reality, the team sought ways to bring data closer to producers' decision-making processes. Weather, climate, seasons, and supply-demand fluctuations are systematically connected to form market forecasts for approximately seven days. Growers gain additional information to consider harvest timing, selling prices, and market outlets rather than merely reacting once products have reached maturity.
During the "Muong Gat So" pilot campaign, the team targeted 500 users for a standalone software application. Only 100 people participated, equivalent to a 20 percent conversion rate. For a group of students building a technology product for agriculture, this figure became a crucial lesson. Farmers struggle to sustain an application if the technology fails to generate value that they can feel directly on their land. Consequently, the team changed their approach. Nong Lac was developed by combining IoT devices on farms, management software, and a trade platform.
Data Accompanying Agricultural Products
Currently, the Nong Lac ecosystem comprises the Nola360 platform, an Android application, and the Lac Lac Zalo Mini App, revolving around the production and consumption of agricultural products. At the farm, sensors monitor soil and air conditions combined with irrigation control systems, recording information generated during the cultivation process. That data forms the history of the season and accompanies shipments during transactions, giving buyers additional evidence to inspect the product creation process.
For the wholesale market, Nong Lac focuses on building a connection system between farming households, buyers, and logistics partners. The Farm 360 feature allows buyers to remotely observe farm information; cultivation data and trading history are expected to form digital credit profiles for farming households.
Behind these features lies a broader direction. When production data is accumulated long enough, farmers can build a profile of their production capacity. For the team, this also serves as the basis for opening up new possibilities in accessing capital, connecting with markets, and forecasting supply.
Following the testing phase, Nong Lac has completed its legal entity establishment, deployed sensor clusters within greenhouses, and put Nola360 into operation with two modules: Digital Cultivation Diary and Wholesale Agricultural Market. The core farm of the project has also completed the cultivation and harvesting of 150,000 chrysanthemum branches.
Team leader Phan Duc Huy stated that over the next three to five years, the team aims to connect each locality and develop solutions suited to the specific product characteristics and agricultural economy of each region. Once the data reaches a sufficient scale, Nong Lac will target logistics optimization and build a regional supply forecasting database.