Chen Leilei (center), an associate professor from Shanghai Ocean University, and his colleague Li Jun (right) guide a Cambodian farmer in maintaining a water quality monitoring device in August last year. CHINA DAILY

Digitalizing tradition

What makes the Cambodia project distinctive is its integration of traditional farming practices with digital monitoring and scientific management.

At demonstration sites, floating solar-powered water quality monitoring devices measure dissolved oxygen, water temperature and pH. Sensors placed in ponds transmit data every 10 minutes, allowing farmers to monitor changes in water conditions and respond when necessary.

Chen Leilei, an associate professor at the College of Engineering at Shanghai Ocean University, said the system was designed to be practical and accessible.

Farmers can decide where to place monitoring devices according to their farming needs, check the water quality of their ponds and review historical fluctuations through a large-screen display.

The system also features a Khmer-language interface, helping farmers operate it without having to overcome a language barrier.

"Overall, for the farmers, logging in or using it is not particularly difficult," Chen said, adding that farmers at the project's three demonstration bases had become proficient in using the system.

At the demonstration sites, prawn survival rates rose from about 40 percent to 80 percent last year, Chen said. The integrated rice-prawn farming model also helped increase annual income per hectare from approximately $1,000 under rice-only cultivation to around $3,000.

Before adopting smart agriculture, Pros Kh's prawn nursery survival rate was about 60 to 65 percent. With digital monitoring and improved management, it has increased to between 70 and 80 percent. "I am happy about this smart agriculture," he said.

Such gains illustrate how digital technologies can help small-scale farmers address uncertainty, which is a central challenge in agricultural production. Timely information allows producers to make more informed decisions, improving the prospects of a successful harvest and reducing avoidable losses.

However, technology produces lasting benefits only when farmers can understand, operate and apply it in their daily work.