Assessment of a Service Provision Business Model for Scaling Mechanized Direct Seeded Rice Production

The Mekong Delta's rice yield has remained steady at approximately 24-25 million tons, accounting for in excess of 50% of rice production and greater than 90% of Vietnam's export rice output. Regardless of great improvements in rice productivity in recent years, 80% of low precision rice establishment is accomplished through broadcast seeding (BS). Furthermore, the Mekong River Delta has only 400 rice transplanters, which is a minuscule amount (approximate 2% of the entire country), whereas manual drum seeders are commonly used. Nonetheless, mechanized direct seeding rice (mDSR) remains in its early stages and not widely applied. The current bottleneck of the region is the simultaneous seeding period for each area within a short duration, leading to limited access to mechanization for seeding in the region due to the low capacity of mechanized direct seeding machines. As a consequence, it is a preresiquite to serve a sufficient quantity of mechanized direct seeding machines and satisfy the capacity of seeding for each area during the seeding period at the same time. mDSR service is an inevitable business model deriving from the persistent constraints faced by the Mekong River Delta that contribute to the process of mechanization application in rice cultivation with a goal to increase farmers' income and minimize greenhouse gases emissions. This research is being carried out to examine the business canvas, cost-volume-profit (CVP), break-even point, payback period, and economic efficiency indicators of the mDSR service-oriented business model as a means to envisage the development of a comprehensive business model for the provision of mDSR service. Despite the fact that the mDSR service cost is threefold higher than that of BS, with the same yield, the average net income of mDSR is 1.2 times greater in WS season (1.607 USD ha-1 and 1.387 USD ha-1 ). In actuality, mDSR not only reduces seeding rate in comparison to broadcast seeding (60kg ha-1 and 120-140kg ha-1 , respectively), but also lowers the fertilizer application amount (150kg ha-1 and 210 ha-1 ). The study initiatives to devise a feasible and economically viable business model for Vietnamese farmers and cooperatives assisting precision agriculture practices in the Mekong Delta.