Recently, vegetable demand in Vietnam has diversified as more produce is being processed, frozen, and exported. Vegetable production must be increased and quality adjusted to meet various demands. On the other hand, labor productivity in vegetable production in Vietnam is not high, and cutting labor costs is an important issue. To meet such requirements, precise vegetable production control is needed.

The APO initiated a demonstration farm project on Improvement of Productivity in Greenhouse Vegetable Production in October 2022. As part of the project, an observational study mission on Microclimate-controlled Greenhouses for Innovative Agriculture was organized 8–10 February for the 10 counterpart staff in Vietnam to understand the mechanisms of control and microclimate data collection and analysis. The mission visited Kikuchi Engei, a selected farm and plant factories operated by the Japan Plant Factory Association, since it is important to learn about and observe best practices before installing microclimate control systems. On 8 February 2023, APO Secretary-General Dr. Indra Pradana Singawinata gave welcome remarks, and Director for International Agricultural Organizations Keiichi Sugita of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of Japan delivered the opening remarks at the first session. This project is partially funded by MAFF under a special cash grant to demonstrate microclimate control systems used by Japanese greenhouses.