Ho Chi Minh City Leads the Way in High-Tech Urban Farming Revolution

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• The city has declared an ambitious goal: turn 75-85 % of its agricultural, forestry and fisheries production value into high-tech agriculture by 2030.
• HCMC is actively shifting away from low-yield crops and under-utilised farmland and focusing on advanced cultivation of vegetables, flowers, fruits, and biotech breeding with nearly 48 % of its agricultural output already coming from high-tech methods.
• It is building an innovation ecosystem: the Ho Chi Minh City High‑Tech Agricultural Park serves as R&D, demo, training and start-up zone; it has incubated enterprises, developed new plant/animal varieties, and transferred hundreds of technical procedures.
• Because HCMC is highly urbanised and land is constrained, the strategy links food security, urban agriculture and technology encouraging smart farms, controlled-environment cultivation and integration of production into the metropolitan area.

In the centre of Ho Chi Minh City, a quiet but powerful transformation is unfolding  one that could redefine what farming looks like in modern cities. 

As rapid urbanisation continues to shrink available farmland, local experts believe high-tech agriculture is no longer optional but essential. The city’s move towards advanced, sustainable methods is reshaping the future of food production within urban environments.

Leading this effort is the Ho Chi Minh City Biotechnology Centre, which has adopted a cutting edge approach to vegetable cultivation known as the Plant Factory System. Based on a Japanese hydroponic model, the system enables “soil-less” farming in a tightly controlled environment. 

Within a 34.5-square-metre space, ten racks measuring 0.84 square metres each are stacked in four layers, creating a total growing area of 3.36 square metres per rack an impressive use of vertical space.

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The centre has tested seven lettuce varieties from the Netherlands, Japan, and Vietnam, with most demonstrating strong adaptability after several planting cycles. 

The system supports up to 15 harvests a year, far exceeding traditional farming yields. The quality and consistency of the produce are also notably higher, marking a major step forward for urban agriculture under space constraints.

Encouraged by these results, the centre plans to extend the Plant Factory model to other high-value crops and share the technology with farmers, cooperatives, and local enterprises. This initiative could enable large-scale, sustainable food production within city limits, helping reduce transport costs and environmental impact while improving food security.

If scaled successfully, Ho Chi Minh City’s high-tech farming project could serve as a blueprint for other densely populated urban areas facing similar challenges. It shows that the future of farming may not depend on vast rural fields, but on innovative systems that bring the farm directly into the city.