ABSTRACT
In digital farming, smartphones use AI and big data to manage crops, and drones can help with farming tasks, especially for Southeast Asia’s small-scale farmers. Both climatetech and digital tech can come together to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture, and digital technologies (digitaltech) can manage digital data and procedures to optimize agricultural work, especially since the agricultural sector is the biggest GHG emitter in 6 out of the 10 ASEAN countries (not including Timor Leste that just joined). Climatetech can work with digitaltech to optimize fertilizer application and serve as an alternative to burning, reducing nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from pastureland and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from crop waste burning. Digitalization can also utilize data analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) to increase productivity and sustainability to monitor crop well-being, enhance resource efficiency, and B2C network with end customers through e-commerce platforms. AI-supported precision farming that uses data analytics for crop monitoring leverages blockchain-based traceability technologies and is undergoing trials in some ASEAN member states. An all-of-society approach involving states, research centers, and the business sector is needed for long-term sustainability in the midst of climatic changes, trade conflicts, and geopolitical rivalries. Devising licensing frameworks for localized climatetech solutions, research and development (R&D) tax incentives, co-funding schemes, piloting opportunities for new technologies, and technical grants are among the initiatives ASEAN Member States (AMS) have used to attract foreign investors and benefit from technological transfers from those investors.
Keywords: Climatetech, Digitaltech, AI, e-commerce, climate change
EMERGENCE OF INDUSTRY 4.0 and 4.5 TECHNOLOGIES IN THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN FARMING SECTOR
Food security in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region is now affected by polycrises found in our contemporary world. One of these crises staring us in the face is climate change. Climate changes include rising temperatures and disruptive weather patterns that in turn impact food production. One of many examples is the lengthened dry conditions in Thailand and Vietnam that rotate abruptly with excessive rainfalls in ruining crops in the major agricultural areas (Global-Is-Asian Staff, 2025). This impact is disproportionately severe for many Southeast Asian economies that are still dependent on agriculture. Within the Indo-China region, in ASEAN member states like Cambodia and Myanmar, the agricultural sector accounted for more than 20% of national GDP and is a significant employer (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
Based on the countermeasures taken by Southeast Asian countries, there seems to be an enhancement of traditional mechanical technologies through Industry 4.0/4.5/5.0 technologies. Traditionally, the way to manage water flows caused by climatic changes was to utilize irrigation and reservoirs, but these physical and mechanical barriers can now be enhanced by Industry 4.0-gen data-gathering sensors. In the Mekong Delta, for example, the Cai Lon–Cai Be irrigation system in Kien Giang Province protected 384,000 hectares of cultivated lands in five provinces from salinity by operating sluice gates and freshwater flows (Medina, 2025). Still on the Mekong region, another example is the Soc Trang and the Dầu Tiếng reservoir systems strengthening Vietnamese water management through 24/7 monitoring, embankment and drought mitigation through technologies funded by national budgets and international developmental funding (Medina 2025). Old meets new tech in both cases.
Besides physical monitoring of agricultural resources, there is also functional adaptation of hi-tech applications, for example, in energy and resource conservation. An example is Vietnam’s Soc Trang and Tra Vinh recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) and solar-powered shrimp farms that reduce disease exposure, conserve the precious commodity of water, and meet sustainability benchmarks (Medina, 2025). While such technologies can be implemented locally, many originate from foreign sources. Thus, one can argue that advanced technological nations outside ASEAN remain crucial for providing these technologies for implementation in Southeast Asia.
Therefore, stakeholders argue that foreign investors with tech solutions in priority areas such as sustainable feed, aquaculture filtration, and digital traceability can team up with domestic exporters to enhance compliance and strengthen value chain resilience (Medina, 2025). Digitaltech (e.g., digital tracing applications) can help with compliance (e.g., with customs regulations, SDG guidelines, etc.), a rising concern in a world fraught with trade conflicts. This is especially true for crops under global scrutiny for sustainability practices, such as fruit, seafood, and coffee exports (Medina, 2025).
Besides continental Southeast Asia in the Mekong Delta region, archipelagic maritime countries in Southeast Asia are also facing similar climate disruptions. For example, the Philippines is experiencing severe water shortages due to declining dam levels, leading to long queues of pail-carrying Manila Water customers at public pumps and fire trucks (Kuo, 2019). All along the contours of maritime archipelago, one can find kelongs or floating fish farms rearing fishes. For island Southeast Asia, fishes are an important producer of sea-based proteins. However, these fisheries are hit by high sea levels impacting their long coastlines negatively, extensive islandic archipelagos, and fertile river deltas, worsening Southeast Asia’s approximately 60 million-strong population of the least nourished individuals in the globe (Kuo, 2019).
The ASEAN State of Climate Change Report (ASCCR) indicated that Southeast Asia is facing substantial and increasing climate change effects, including extreme weather that causes socio-economic and environmental harm (Global-Is-Asian Staff, 2025). Moreover, in addition to aging Singapore, Southeast Asia has a healthily expanding population but limited land and fishery/seafood stocks to feed them. Therefore, any attempts to avoid Malthusian demographic scenarios will require innovative tech solutions. Supporting this point, the United Nations (UN) research highlights that declining biodiversity in food supply chains caused by climate change is leading to a 25% decline in wild food species (Kuo, 2019).
Due to the growing population, increasingly adverse weather conditions and limited resources stretch thin for different needs including rapid industrialization and urbanization. Time is not on the side of Southeast Asian countries. ASEAN farming communities are forced to adapt to climatic changes with urgency and it is incumbent on governments to assist the smallholder farmers,including subsistence farmers and tenant farmers, who are most vulnerable. In fact, they make up the majority of food producers in Southeast Asia (Global-Is-Asian Staff, 2025). Technology is the great leveler for the small-time farmers and peasants. In terms of tech-enabled farming, Industry 4.0/4.5 smartphones use AI and big data for crop management and drones can help out with farming assignments (e.g. weather projections, disaster mitigation, crop damage evaluation, crop tracking/mapping), usable even for plots smaller than two hectares (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan, and Teo, 2022).
The private sector also plays a part in assisting small-scale farmers in ASEAN. To empower small-scale farmers, Deloitte and the World Economic Forum (WEF) came up with a multi-year partnership to support, design, and implement the 100 Million Farmers Program that motivates farmers to take up sustainable practices that led to net-zero, environmentally friendly food chains (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan, and Teo, 2022).
Convergence of climatetech and digitaltech
Thus, ASEAN’s stakeholders see a convergence of climatic (climatetech) and digital technologies (digitaltech) to manage climate challenges, thereby strengthening the integration process between the two within ASEAN. Some researchers like Mae Chow, Research Assistant at the Center for Asian Geopolitics(CAG) at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy(LKYSPP), NUS, see more room for improvements, particularly in the integration of AI and implement in smart agriculture which can carry out predictive analytics, generate real-time data on farming conditions, information-sharing of guidelines for legislation, improving logistical routes, and optimally store fresh produce to prevent food wastage (Global-Is-Asian Staff, 2025). In general, digitalization involves deploying data analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve optimal work output.
In the field of agriculture, the ASEAN Secretariat indicated that such technologies can track environmental factors, crop well-being, resource efficiency, digital market access, and B2C networking with customers while removing the middlemen- all of which increase profits (ASEAN Secretariat, 2025). AI can analyze supply and demand, mitigate price fluctuations, advise on state intervention, and facilitate regulatory improvements in financial investments, but while it benefits the stakeholders in the long term, AI technologies require capital outlay, and training and coaching needs for its users (Global-Is-Asian Staff, 2025).
Climate technology (climatetech) reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture while digitaltech are equipment, digital data management and procedures to enhance farming activities (Teng, 2025). This is important in transiting Southeast Asia towards a low carbon economy. Contemporarily, the agricultural sector is the biggest GHG emitter in 6 out of the 10 ASEAN countries (not including Timor Leste that just joined), making them important frontline states in combating global warming (Teng, 2025).
Particularly for less educated farmers, it is tempting to take the shortcut to prevent soil deterioration, smaller harvests through excessive use of fertilizers, overseeding, and other unsustainable actions, which can, in the long run, hurt soil fertility. In this way, climatetech can help in GHG emissions reduction, increase soil-based carbon sinks capacity to absorb GHG emissions and assist agrifood systems adjust to climatic variability or change (Teng, 2025).
Climate change is expected to hit Southeast Asia’s staple food of rice (its major carbohydrate source) hard, as the crop is vulnerable to weather changes. The World Bank reported that, on average, rice cultivation accounts for 43% of national agricultural GHG emissions in Southeast Asia, particularly in major rice exporters such as Vietnam (50%) and Thailand (65%) (Teng, 2025). Even as Southeast Asia’s population hit 750 million in 2035, rice yields in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam could drop up to 50% in the 21st century (thus some suggest turning to less water-intensive cereals, pulses, and millets as alternatives) (Kuo, 2019).
Enter cutting-edge Industry 4.0/4.5 technologies. Climatetech “Alternate-Wetting-Drying” (AWD) allow paddies to be drained of water and then re-flooded to cut down on methane emissions by a maximum of 50% (Teng, 2025). AWD uses hollow pipes in paddy to track water levels when they are drained to protect rice crops, and this procedure is gradually shifting from manual labor to reliance on digitized sensors (already used in Vietnam and Japan. (Teng, 2025).
The e-commerce and distribution applications
While middle income economies like Vietnam are forging ahead with technological implementation, Southeast Asia’s advanced economies are not standing still either. Even for advanced Southeast Asian economies like Singapore, which does not have a large-scale agricultural industry, its farmers are utilizing technologies to contribute to short-term self-reliance in certain selected food products. Singapore’s high-tech farmingmany of which are clustered in Kranji, with LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes), electronic sensors, and IoT can optimize harvests, e.g. Singapore-based agritech startup Sustenir’s hi-tech indoor farms has minimally 14 times higher yields than those of conventional farms (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
Beyond farming activities, technologies are also utilized for distribution, retailing and e-commerce functions as well. For example, its high-tech farmers can utilize e-commerce platforms to retail their products to urbanite customers, e.g. Singapore’s Urban Tiller is a farm-to-table agritech startup that provides fresh farm products to households under eight hours after harvesting them (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
With its young population, even the large emerging economies in Southeast Asia are not lagging behind in implementing Industry 4.0/4.5 technologies. Younger stakeholders in Southeast Asia’s farming sector mean both producers and consumers are more tech-savvy and can turn to e-solutions for food retailing needs. For example, in Indonesia, a middle-income economy that has produced tech giants like Gojek-Tokopedia (food delivery) and eFishery, an agritech unicorn, e-savvy consumers are quick to adopt food e-retailing. For example, Javanese and Balinese customers are turning to e-grocery retailer Sayurbox to get their fresh products straight from local farmers (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
Southeast Asian e-commerce is starting from a low base and has strong potential for growth, especially with its young population base. According to the e-Conomy SEA Report 2021 produced by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company, Southeast Asia’s digital advancement is partially accelerated by e-commerce, online grocery orders, food logistics and further spurred by COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a growth spurt of 60 million additional digital consumers. (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
To decrease post-harvest losses (more than 25% for perishable crops) due to storage and transport inefficiencies, investments are made in modular cold rooms, solar-powered refrigeration, enhanced checkpoints and ports in Vietnam’s cold-chain/agritech logistics by foreign investors (particularly in Dong Thap and Tien Giang) (Medina, 2025). Vietnam offers foreign agri-tech companies opportunities to team up with universities, provincial extension centers, and/or national institutes to serve as test beds and adopt technologies such as accurate irrigation/moisture-tracking tech to enhance water efficiency and adapt to changing climatic conditions (Medina, 2025).
AI-supported precision farming that utilize data analytics for crop monitoring by tapping into blockchain-based traceability technologies are undergoing trial runs in some ASEAN states (Global-Is-Asian Staff, 2025). Digital solutions can persuade more farmers to scale up AWD and digital tracking facilitates the state’s ability to evaluate total methane levels cuts within a certain area, facilitating a Measurement, Reporting, Verification (MRV) system for carbon credits (Teng, 2025).
Vietnamese companies, for example, are tracking carbon credits for their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), with the country as the earliest ASEAN user of AMS to hit its NDC target (Teng, 2025). First trialed in the Cần Thơ Province, Vietnam’s MimosaTEK precision agricultural tech startup assists small-scale farmers using cloud devices and sensors for crop tracking while internet-of-things (IoT) utilizes smartphones to track climatic conditions and irrigate crops efficiently (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022). Local climatetech initiatives, put together by state agencies and research organizations, include AI-powered soil tracking, mechanized irrigation, and disease-tracking/detection using autonomously powered soil moisture sensors (made by Hanoi University of Science & Technology) and AI-managed water and nutrient management (Medina, 2025).
Besides tracking functions, the same technologies can also be deployed for tactical operations in the war to eliminate pests. Indonesian Climate Intelligence (CI) Agriculture cut down on loan costs for smallholder agriculturalists by utilizing satellite, drone, and sensor big data to more precisely evaluate a plot’s production potential and then utilize the same big data to implement fertilizer and pesticides more efficiently with lower chemical dosages for the same yields (Kuo, 2019). Similarly, Poladrone, a Malaysian startup, offers pest mitigation drones for spraying pesticides at Malaysian oil palm plantations with great precision and lessen the farmers’ encounter with toxic pesticides (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
The use of smart agricultural technologies is cheered on by the Thai authorities to play a larger role in the Thai agricultural industry, and the authorities have incentivized such practices since 2020 (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan, and Teo, 2022). The Thai Digital Economy Promotion Agency encouraged farmers and community-level firms by offering agritech grants amounting between THB 10,000 (USD300) and THB 300,000 (USD9,000), who then used them to invest in drones for seed-planting and pesticides implementation (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
Climatetech can work with digitaltech to optimize fertilizer application and serve as an alternative to burning, reducing nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from pastureland and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from crop waste burning (Teng, 2025). The ASEAN-Japan symposium from 2015 to 2025 organized in Vietnam demonstrated how digital agritech can assist farmers in expanding crop returns, cut down expenditure, and anticipate severe weather (Teng, 2025).
Attracting funding and instituting financial services
In the postwar era, through the flying geese model, Japan had been disseminating its know-how, technologies, and investments to the rest of the region, starting with the Four Tiger economies. It is now continuing these efforts with ASEAN and its newest member in the agricultural sector. Japanese agriculturists are experienced in utilizing climatetech to adapt farming practices to maintain crop yields and, by sharing this know-how with ASEAN farmers, Southeast Asian farmers can project water supply and demand to optimally apply fertilizers (Teng, 2025).
ASEAN can formulate policies to attract funding for climate adaptation and to incentivize the responsible use of AI in the agriculture sector. Southeast Asian countries can try to offset high initial capital outlays for new farming tech. This can be done through licensing frameworks for localized climatetech solutions, R&D tax incentives, co-funding schemes, piloting opportunities, state technical grants, and provincial green agricultural programs to lower financial risks for foreign investors whose advanced technologies can provide local stakeholders with learning opportunities and enhanced economic competitiveness (Medina, 2025).
For example, Indonesian tech firm like i-Grow lure investors to provide funding remotely in seeds for growing in under-utilized plots, e.g. a one-off investment of approximately US$1200 in peanut seeds can possibly have a return of 9-13% in six months (Kuo, 2019). The finance aspect of agricultural ventures also involves hedging against risks and this is where insurance and actuarial sciences come into play. For example, Vietnam’s Igloo, Aurora Mobility Solutions and MobiFone’s MobiAgri platform provided monthly weather insurance nationally to ensure agriculturalists against drought and flood losses and bundle together services like microinsurance, advisory tools, and climate-resilient input finance via digital lending platforms, blockchain-based creditand rural bank collaborations (Medina, 2025).
Vietnamese agritech private-sector businesses interested in climatetech, such as BlueOrchard’s InsuResilience Investment Fund, funded the Vietnam-based TechCoop, which serves 200,000 small-scale farmers, to augment climate resilience through digital technology and funding, helping to enhance the resilience of Vietnam’s agricultural systems (Medina, 2025).
While profit-making is an important ingredient in the success of farming ventures, agriculturalists must never lose sight of global collective efforts in combating climate change. In augmenting these efforts, state policies should try to meet COP29 obligations and take a multi-stakeholder approach to expand the scale of such efforts through public-private partnerships (PPPs). Multistakeholder approach means that the state, business sector, International Organizations (IOs) and local communities need to create awareness and provide equal access to AI for all.
Macro-regional schemes and platforms
ASEAN dialogue partners that are largely advanced economies, and the global private sector can work together in the institutionalized platforms of ASEAN Climate Change Initiative (ACCI), the ASEAN Working Group on Climate Change (AWGCC) and the ASEAN Climate Resilience Network (CRN). These platforms can be used for sharing experiences, knowledge, best practices and latest technological innovations. The ASEAN Secretariat hopes that such sharing can reinforce a united approach in tackling common challenges in the region. ASEAN stakeholders also spawned the ASEAN Sectoral Working Group on Crops (ASWGC), the ASEAN Technical Working Group on Agricultural Research and Development (ATWGARD), and the ASEAN Guidelines on Promoting the Utilization of Digital Technologies for the ASEAN Food and Agricultural Sector for advocating digital technologies.
The ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) inked the Action Plan on Sustainable Agriculture in ASEAN in 2024 to enhance agricultural productivity in an environmentally responsible and socially equitable manner. The three features of this Plan include decarbonization, reducing toxic chemicals, advancing digitalization, and using technology to address the sector’s pressing challenges.
The ASEAN Secretariat’s Action Plan on Sustainable Agriculture in ASEAN 2024 promotes a comprehensive approach that emphasizes decarbonization, reduced chemical use, and digital transformation. Its official website indicated the ASEAN Action Plan highlights the need to cut down on toxic chemical inputs through Integrated Pest Management (IPM), implement organic farming using climatetech/digitaltech (e.g. soil and crop health trackers) to reduce chemical use, while improving digital literacy in the farming community to benefit from these digital innovations (ASEAN Secretariat, 2025).
While some action plans focus on operational directions and details, other ASEAN vision statements and strategic blueprints focus on the macro integration of climatetech and digitaltech. The regional and local integration of climatetech and digitaltech through the Vision and Strategic Plan for ASEAN Cooperation in Food, Agriculture and Forestry (FAF) 2016-2025 focused on reducing agricultural GHG emissions through a stakeholder approach (Teng, 2025). From these broad vision statements and policies, it is possible to detect all-of-society approach capitalizing on Industry 4.0/4.5 technologies to attain secure food supply chains and environmental integrity by prioritizing certain technologies over others (such as the examples selectively mentioned above).
Besides operational strategies and vision statements, there are other scientific research-driven forms of ASEAN technical cooperation as well. For example, the ASEAN Cooperation on Agricultural and Bio-systems Engineering (ACABE) and the ASEAN Universities Consortium on Food and Agro-based engineering and technology education (AUCFA) promote information exchange and Industry 4.0 tech-sharing. This function can take place through conferences, workshops and seminar. For example, for the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) in Marrakech, ASEAN Negotiators Group on Agriculture (ANGA) recommended scaling up funding, access to tech, precisely tracking/improving regional collaboration, and upgrading capabilities in GPS, AI, IoT connectivity to improve crop yields for the food supply chains (Kuo, 2019).
CONCLUDING REMARKS
ASEAN’ blueprints and visions statements enhancing digitech can be analyzed and categorized into three main tranches. The first group focuses on broad operational directions for systemic climate change mitigation through the use of relevant tech. The second category looks into strategies, and encourages an all-of-society, all-of-government and all-of-region approaches to tackle common regional challenges. The last category consists of research, know-how, and technology-sharing platforms for ASEAN stakeholders to share information. The net result of these initiatives would enhance exchanges between governments, research institutions and the private sector in the region.
Operationally, there is also an integration of traditional climate change mitigation methodologies like crop rotation, renewable energy use (e.g., biogas listed by ASEAN Secretariat), crop diversification, expanding food reserves, with new digital technologies some of which were mentioned in the sections above. More importantly, there are now strong incentives to develop some measures, alongside technological innovations. Southeast Asia is luring foreign investors and tech-entrepreneurs/technologists’ R&D collaboration by offering its potential for regional multiracial and multiethnic test-bedding or trials, procurement opportunities made possible by rising or emerging economies; Vietnam and the Philippines are among the fastest-growing economies in the world, and growing pools of young consumers.
If these measures and tech test-bedding are successful, they can be exported to the rest of the Global South. South Asia, the African continent, and South America, which have similar weather, geographical position closer to the tropics, economic developmental conditions, and demographic factors, can try out some of the technologies already test-bedded or implemented successfully in the ASEAN region. ASEAN countries can also play the role of transferers of knowhow and best practices to others in the Global South. In other words, they can be climate tech and digital tech pathfinders.
The Global South regions are also rapidly undergoing urbanization and the formation of densely-populated mega-cities. There may be a demand for more urban farms and vegetable gardens (e.g. rooftop gardens) to supplement the main food supply chain of food imports. Just like Singapore’s strategy during the pandemic, such urban farms and gardens may be able to sustain food supply during times of emergencies and crises for a short few weeks before imported food arrives, delayed by global supply chain disruptions. With greenhouses, hydroponics and aeroponics, urban farms and gardens can produce all-year diversified crops without the traditional concerns of weather disruptions, pestilence and soil erosion or deterioration.
REFERENCES
ASEAN Secretariat. Science and Technology’s role in Sustainable Agricultural Development of ASEAN. ASEAN Secretariat, 4 March 2025. Retrieved from https://asean.org/science-and-technologys-role-in-sustainable-agricultur...
Global-Is-Asian Staff. How Climate, Politics & AI Shape ASEAN’s Food Security. Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy National University of Singapore (LKYSPP NUS), 4 April 2025. Retrieved from https://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/gia/article/how-climate-politics-and-ai-are-re...
Kulasooriya, Duleesha, Richard Mackender, Tan Shuo Yan, and Teo Zhixin. The future of agrifood tech in Southeast Asia: Agriculture in the digital decade. EDB Singapore website, 20 April 2022. Retrieved from https://www.edb.gov.sg/en/business-insights/insights/the-future-of-agrif...
Kuo, Frederick. Can technology save ASEAN’s food supplies from climate change?. The Lowy Institute The Interpreter, 9 April 2019. Retrieved from https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/can-technology-save-asean-...
Medina, Ayman Falak. Investing in Vietnam’s Climate-Smart Agriculture Transformation. ASEAN Briefing, 22 May 2025. Retrieved from https://www.aseanbriefing.com/news/investing-in-vietnams-climate-smart-a...
Teng, Paul. Synergising Digitaltech and Climatetech to Enhance ASEAN Climate Action. ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, 2025. Retrieved from https://fulcrum.sg/synergising-digitaltech-and-climatetech-to-enhance-as...
A Brief Account of the Climatetech and Digitaltech Applications in the ASEAN Agricultural Industry
ABSTRACT
In digital farming, smartphones use AI and big data to manage crops, and drones can help with farming tasks, especially for Southeast Asia’s small-scale farmers. Both climatetech and digital tech can come together to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture, and digital technologies (digitaltech) can manage digital data and procedures to optimize agricultural work, especially since the agricultural sector is the biggest GHG emitter in 6 out of the 10 ASEAN countries (not including Timor Leste that just joined). Climatetech can work with digitaltech to optimize fertilizer application and serve as an alternative to burning, reducing nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from pastureland and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from crop waste burning. Digitalization can also utilize data analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) to increase productivity and sustainability to monitor crop well-being, enhance resource efficiency, and B2C network with end customers through e-commerce platforms. AI-supported precision farming that uses data analytics for crop monitoring leverages blockchain-based traceability technologies and is undergoing trials in some ASEAN member states. An all-of-society approach involving states, research centers, and the business sector is needed for long-term sustainability in the midst of climatic changes, trade conflicts, and geopolitical rivalries. Devising licensing frameworks for localized climatetech solutions, research and development (R&D) tax incentives, co-funding schemes, piloting opportunities for new technologies, and technical grants are among the initiatives ASEAN Member States (AMS) have used to attract foreign investors and benefit from technological transfers from those investors.
Keywords: Climatetech, Digitaltech, AI, e-commerce, climate change
EMERGENCE OF INDUSTRY 4.0 and 4.5 TECHNOLOGIES IN THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN FARMING SECTOR
Food security in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region is now affected by polycrises found in our contemporary world. One of these crises staring us in the face is climate change. Climate changes include rising temperatures and disruptive weather patterns that in turn impact food production. One of many examples is the lengthened dry conditions in Thailand and Vietnam that rotate abruptly with excessive rainfalls in ruining crops in the major agricultural areas (Global-Is-Asian Staff, 2025). This impact is disproportionately severe for many Southeast Asian economies that are still dependent on agriculture. Within the Indo-China region, in ASEAN member states like Cambodia and Myanmar, the agricultural sector accounted for more than 20% of national GDP and is a significant employer (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
Based on the countermeasures taken by Southeast Asian countries, there seems to be an enhancement of traditional mechanical technologies through Industry 4.0/4.5/5.0 technologies. Traditionally, the way to manage water flows caused by climatic changes was to utilize irrigation and reservoirs, but these physical and mechanical barriers can now be enhanced by Industry 4.0-gen data-gathering sensors. In the Mekong Delta, for example, the Cai Lon–Cai Be irrigation system in Kien Giang Province protected 384,000 hectares of cultivated lands in five provinces from salinity by operating sluice gates and freshwater flows (Medina, 2025). Still on the Mekong region, another example is the Soc Trang and the Dầu Tiếng reservoir systems strengthening Vietnamese water management through 24/7 monitoring, embankment and drought mitigation through technologies funded by national budgets and international developmental funding (Medina 2025). Old meets new tech in both cases.
Besides physical monitoring of agricultural resources, there is also functional adaptation of hi-tech applications, for example, in energy and resource conservation. An example is Vietnam’s Soc Trang and Tra Vinh recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) and solar-powered shrimp farms that reduce disease exposure, conserve the precious commodity of water, and meet sustainability benchmarks (Medina, 2025). While such technologies can be implemented locally, many originate from foreign sources. Thus, one can argue that advanced technological nations outside ASEAN remain crucial for providing these technologies for implementation in Southeast Asia.
Therefore, stakeholders argue that foreign investors with tech solutions in priority areas such as sustainable feed, aquaculture filtration, and digital traceability can team up with domestic exporters to enhance compliance and strengthen value chain resilience (Medina, 2025). Digitaltech (e.g., digital tracing applications) can help with compliance (e.g., with customs regulations, SDG guidelines, etc.), a rising concern in a world fraught with trade conflicts. This is especially true for crops under global scrutiny for sustainability practices, such as fruit, seafood, and coffee exports (Medina, 2025).
Besides continental Southeast Asia in the Mekong Delta region, archipelagic maritime countries in Southeast Asia are also facing similar climate disruptions. For example, the Philippines is experiencing severe water shortages due to declining dam levels, leading to long queues of pail-carrying Manila Water customers at public pumps and fire trucks (Kuo, 2019). All along the contours of maritime archipelago, one can find kelongs or floating fish farms rearing fishes. For island Southeast Asia, fishes are an important producer of sea-based proteins. However, these fisheries are hit by high sea levels impacting their long coastlines negatively, extensive islandic archipelagos, and fertile river deltas, worsening Southeast Asia’s approximately 60 million-strong population of the least nourished individuals in the globe (Kuo, 2019).
The ASEAN State of Climate Change Report (ASCCR) indicated that Southeast Asia is facing substantial and increasing climate change effects, including extreme weather that causes socio-economic and environmental harm (Global-Is-Asian Staff, 2025). Moreover, in addition to aging Singapore, Southeast Asia has a healthily expanding population but limited land and fishery/seafood stocks to feed them. Therefore, any attempts to avoid Malthusian demographic scenarios will require innovative tech solutions. Supporting this point, the United Nations (UN) research highlights that declining biodiversity in food supply chains caused by climate change is leading to a 25% decline in wild food species (Kuo, 2019).
Due to the growing population, increasingly adverse weather conditions and limited resources stretch thin for different needs including rapid industrialization and urbanization. Time is not on the side of Southeast Asian countries. ASEAN farming communities are forced to adapt to climatic changes with urgency and it is incumbent on governments to assist the smallholder farmers,including subsistence farmers and tenant farmers, who are most vulnerable. In fact, they make up the majority of food producers in Southeast Asia (Global-Is-Asian Staff, 2025). Technology is the great leveler for the small-time farmers and peasants. In terms of tech-enabled farming, Industry 4.0/4.5 smartphones use AI and big data for crop management and drones can help out with farming assignments (e.g. weather projections, disaster mitigation, crop damage evaluation, crop tracking/mapping), usable even for plots smaller than two hectares (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan, and Teo, 2022).
The private sector also plays a part in assisting small-scale farmers in ASEAN. To empower small-scale farmers, Deloitte and the World Economic Forum (WEF) came up with a multi-year partnership to support, design, and implement the 100 Million Farmers Program that motivates farmers to take up sustainable practices that led to net-zero, environmentally friendly food chains (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan, and Teo, 2022).
Convergence of climatetech and digitaltech
Thus, ASEAN’s stakeholders see a convergence of climatic (climatetech) and digital technologies (digitaltech) to manage climate challenges, thereby strengthening the integration process between the two within ASEAN. Some researchers like Mae Chow, Research Assistant at the Center for Asian Geopolitics(CAG) at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy(LKYSPP), NUS, see more room for improvements, particularly in the integration of AI and implement in smart agriculture which can carry out predictive analytics, generate real-time data on farming conditions, information-sharing of guidelines for legislation, improving logistical routes, and optimally store fresh produce to prevent food wastage (Global-Is-Asian Staff, 2025). In general, digitalization involves deploying data analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve optimal work output.
In the field of agriculture, the ASEAN Secretariat indicated that such technologies can track environmental factors, crop well-being, resource efficiency, digital market access, and B2C networking with customers while removing the middlemen- all of which increase profits (ASEAN Secretariat, 2025). AI can analyze supply and demand, mitigate price fluctuations, advise on state intervention, and facilitate regulatory improvements in financial investments, but while it benefits the stakeholders in the long term, AI technologies require capital outlay, and training and coaching needs for its users (Global-Is-Asian Staff, 2025).
Climate technology (climatetech) reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture while digitaltech are equipment, digital data management and procedures to enhance farming activities (Teng, 2025). This is important in transiting Southeast Asia towards a low carbon economy. Contemporarily, the agricultural sector is the biggest GHG emitter in 6 out of the 10 ASEAN countries (not including Timor Leste that just joined), making them important frontline states in combating global warming (Teng, 2025).
Particularly for less educated farmers, it is tempting to take the shortcut to prevent soil deterioration, smaller harvests through excessive use of fertilizers, overseeding, and other unsustainable actions, which can, in the long run, hurt soil fertility. In this way, climatetech can help in GHG emissions reduction, increase soil-based carbon sinks capacity to absorb GHG emissions and assist agrifood systems adjust to climatic variability or change (Teng, 2025).
Climate change is expected to hit Southeast Asia’s staple food of rice (its major carbohydrate source) hard, as the crop is vulnerable to weather changes. The World Bank reported that, on average, rice cultivation accounts for 43% of national agricultural GHG emissions in Southeast Asia, particularly in major rice exporters such as Vietnam (50%) and Thailand (65%) (Teng, 2025). Even as Southeast Asia’s population hit 750 million in 2035, rice yields in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam could drop up to 50% in the 21st century (thus some suggest turning to less water-intensive cereals, pulses, and millets as alternatives) (Kuo, 2019).
Enter cutting-edge Industry 4.0/4.5 technologies. Climatetech “Alternate-Wetting-Drying” (AWD) allow paddies to be drained of water and then re-flooded to cut down on methane emissions by a maximum of 50% (Teng, 2025). AWD uses hollow pipes in paddy to track water levels when they are drained to protect rice crops, and this procedure is gradually shifting from manual labor to reliance on digitized sensors (already used in Vietnam and Japan. (Teng, 2025).
The e-commerce and distribution applications
While middle income economies like Vietnam are forging ahead with technological implementation, Southeast Asia’s advanced economies are not standing still either. Even for advanced Southeast Asian economies like Singapore, which does not have a large-scale agricultural industry, its farmers are utilizing technologies to contribute to short-term self-reliance in certain selected food products. Singapore’s high-tech farmingmany of which are clustered in Kranji, with LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes), electronic sensors, and IoT can optimize harvests, e.g. Singapore-based agritech startup Sustenir’s hi-tech indoor farms has minimally 14 times higher yields than those of conventional farms (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
Beyond farming activities, technologies are also utilized for distribution, retailing and e-commerce functions as well. For example, its high-tech farmers can utilize e-commerce platforms to retail their products to urbanite customers, e.g. Singapore’s Urban Tiller is a farm-to-table agritech startup that provides fresh farm products to households under eight hours after harvesting them (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
With its young population, even the large emerging economies in Southeast Asia are not lagging behind in implementing Industry 4.0/4.5 technologies. Younger stakeholders in Southeast Asia’s farming sector mean both producers and consumers are more tech-savvy and can turn to e-solutions for food retailing needs. For example, in Indonesia, a middle-income economy that has produced tech giants like Gojek-Tokopedia (food delivery) and eFishery, an agritech unicorn, e-savvy consumers are quick to adopt food e-retailing. For example, Javanese and Balinese customers are turning to e-grocery retailer Sayurbox to get their fresh products straight from local farmers (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
Southeast Asian e-commerce is starting from a low base and has strong potential for growth, especially with its young population base. According to the e-Conomy SEA Report 2021 produced by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company, Southeast Asia’s digital advancement is partially accelerated by e-commerce, online grocery orders, food logistics and further spurred by COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a growth spurt of 60 million additional digital consumers. (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
To decrease post-harvest losses (more than 25% for perishable crops) due to storage and transport inefficiencies, investments are made in modular cold rooms, solar-powered refrigeration, enhanced checkpoints and ports in Vietnam’s cold-chain/agritech logistics by foreign investors (particularly in Dong Thap and Tien Giang) (Medina, 2025). Vietnam offers foreign agri-tech companies opportunities to team up with universities, provincial extension centers, and/or national institutes to serve as test beds and adopt technologies such as accurate irrigation/moisture-tracking tech to enhance water efficiency and adapt to changing climatic conditions (Medina, 2025).
AI-supported precision farming that utilize data analytics for crop monitoring by tapping into blockchain-based traceability technologies are undergoing trial runs in some ASEAN states (Global-Is-Asian Staff, 2025). Digital solutions can persuade more farmers to scale up AWD and digital tracking facilitates the state’s ability to evaluate total methane levels cuts within a certain area, facilitating a Measurement, Reporting, Verification (MRV) system for carbon credits (Teng, 2025).
Vietnamese companies, for example, are tracking carbon credits for their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), with the country as the earliest ASEAN user of AMS to hit its NDC target (Teng, 2025). First trialed in the Cần Thơ Province, Vietnam’s MimosaTEK precision agricultural tech startup assists small-scale farmers using cloud devices and sensors for crop tracking while internet-of-things (IoT) utilizes smartphones to track climatic conditions and irrigate crops efficiently (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022). Local climatetech initiatives, put together by state agencies and research organizations, include AI-powered soil tracking, mechanized irrigation, and disease-tracking/detection using autonomously powered soil moisture sensors (made by Hanoi University of Science & Technology) and AI-managed water and nutrient management (Medina, 2025).
Besides tracking functions, the same technologies can also be deployed for tactical operations in the war to eliminate pests. Indonesian Climate Intelligence (CI) Agriculture cut down on loan costs for smallholder agriculturalists by utilizing satellite, drone, and sensor big data to more precisely evaluate a plot’s production potential and then utilize the same big data to implement fertilizer and pesticides more efficiently with lower chemical dosages for the same yields (Kuo, 2019). Similarly, Poladrone, a Malaysian startup, offers pest mitigation drones for spraying pesticides at Malaysian oil palm plantations with great precision and lessen the farmers’ encounter with toxic pesticides (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
The use of smart agricultural technologies is cheered on by the Thai authorities to play a larger role in the Thai agricultural industry, and the authorities have incentivized such practices since 2020 (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan, and Teo, 2022). The Thai Digital Economy Promotion Agency encouraged farmers and community-level firms by offering agritech grants amounting between THB 10,000 (USD300) and THB 300,000 (USD9,000), who then used them to invest in drones for seed-planting and pesticides implementation (Kulasooriya, Mackender, Tan and Teo, 2022).
Climatetech can work with digitaltech to optimize fertilizer application and serve as an alternative to burning, reducing nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from pastureland and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from crop waste burning (Teng, 2025). The ASEAN-Japan symposium from 2015 to 2025 organized in Vietnam demonstrated how digital agritech can assist farmers in expanding crop returns, cut down expenditure, and anticipate severe weather (Teng, 2025).
Attracting funding and instituting financial services
In the postwar era, through the flying geese model, Japan had been disseminating its know-how, technologies, and investments to the rest of the region, starting with the Four Tiger economies. It is now continuing these efforts with ASEAN and its newest member in the agricultural sector. Japanese agriculturists are experienced in utilizing climatetech to adapt farming practices to maintain crop yields and, by sharing this know-how with ASEAN farmers, Southeast Asian farmers can project water supply and demand to optimally apply fertilizers (Teng, 2025).
ASEAN can formulate policies to attract funding for climate adaptation and to incentivize the responsible use of AI in the agriculture sector. Southeast Asian countries can try to offset high initial capital outlays for new farming tech. This can be done through licensing frameworks for localized climatetech solutions, R&D tax incentives, co-funding schemes, piloting opportunities, state technical grants, and provincial green agricultural programs to lower financial risks for foreign investors whose advanced technologies can provide local stakeholders with learning opportunities and enhanced economic competitiveness (Medina, 2025).
For example, Indonesian tech firm like i-Grow lure investors to provide funding remotely in seeds for growing in under-utilized plots, e.g. a one-off investment of approximately US$1200 in peanut seeds can possibly have a return of 9-13% in six months (Kuo, 2019). The finance aspect of agricultural ventures also involves hedging against risks and this is where insurance and actuarial sciences come into play. For example, Vietnam’s Igloo, Aurora Mobility Solutions and MobiFone’s MobiAgri platform provided monthly weather insurance nationally to ensure agriculturalists against drought and flood losses and bundle together services like microinsurance, advisory tools, and climate-resilient input finance via digital lending platforms, blockchain-based creditand rural bank collaborations (Medina, 2025).
Vietnamese agritech private-sector businesses interested in climatetech, such as BlueOrchard’s InsuResilience Investment Fund, funded the Vietnam-based TechCoop, which serves 200,000 small-scale farmers, to augment climate resilience through digital technology and funding, helping to enhance the resilience of Vietnam’s agricultural systems (Medina, 2025).
While profit-making is an important ingredient in the success of farming ventures, agriculturalists must never lose sight of global collective efforts in combating climate change. In augmenting these efforts, state policies should try to meet COP29 obligations and take a multi-stakeholder approach to expand the scale of such efforts through public-private partnerships (PPPs). Multistakeholder approach means that the state, business sector, International Organizations (IOs) and local communities need to create awareness and provide equal access to AI for all.
Macro-regional schemes and platforms
ASEAN dialogue partners that are largely advanced economies, and the global private sector can work together in the institutionalized platforms of ASEAN Climate Change Initiative (ACCI), the ASEAN Working Group on Climate Change (AWGCC) and the ASEAN Climate Resilience Network (CRN). These platforms can be used for sharing experiences, knowledge, best practices and latest technological innovations. The ASEAN Secretariat hopes that such sharing can reinforce a united approach in tackling common challenges in the region. ASEAN stakeholders also spawned the ASEAN Sectoral Working Group on Crops (ASWGC), the ASEAN Technical Working Group on Agricultural Research and Development (ATWGARD), and the ASEAN Guidelines on Promoting the Utilization of Digital Technologies for the ASEAN Food and Agricultural Sector for advocating digital technologies.
The ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) inked the Action Plan on Sustainable Agriculture in ASEAN in 2024 to enhance agricultural productivity in an environmentally responsible and socially equitable manner. The three features of this Plan include decarbonization, reducing toxic chemicals, advancing digitalization, and using technology to address the sector’s pressing challenges.
The ASEAN Secretariat’s Action Plan on Sustainable Agriculture in ASEAN 2024 promotes a comprehensive approach that emphasizes decarbonization, reduced chemical use, and digital transformation. Its official website indicated the ASEAN Action Plan highlights the need to cut down on toxic chemical inputs through Integrated Pest Management (IPM), implement organic farming using climatetech/digitaltech (e.g. soil and crop health trackers) to reduce chemical use, while improving digital literacy in the farming community to benefit from these digital innovations (ASEAN Secretariat, 2025).
While some action plans focus on operational directions and details, other ASEAN vision statements and strategic blueprints focus on the macro integration of climatetech and digitaltech. The regional and local integration of climatetech and digitaltech through the Vision and Strategic Plan for ASEAN Cooperation in Food, Agriculture and Forestry (FAF) 2016-2025 focused on reducing agricultural GHG emissions through a stakeholder approach (Teng, 2025). From these broad vision statements and policies, it is possible to detect all-of-society approach capitalizing on Industry 4.0/4.5 technologies to attain secure food supply chains and environmental integrity by prioritizing certain technologies over others (such as the examples selectively mentioned above).
Besides operational strategies and vision statements, there are other scientific research-driven forms of ASEAN technical cooperation as well. For example, the ASEAN Cooperation on Agricultural and Bio-systems Engineering (ACABE) and the ASEAN Universities Consortium on Food and Agro-based engineering and technology education (AUCFA) promote information exchange and Industry 4.0 tech-sharing. This function can take place through conferences, workshops and seminar. For example, for the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) in Marrakech, ASEAN Negotiators Group on Agriculture (ANGA) recommended scaling up funding, access to tech, precisely tracking/improving regional collaboration, and upgrading capabilities in GPS, AI, IoT connectivity to improve crop yields for the food supply chains (Kuo, 2019).
CONCLUDING REMARKS
ASEAN’ blueprints and visions statements enhancing digitech can be analyzed and categorized into three main tranches. The first group focuses on broad operational directions for systemic climate change mitigation through the use of relevant tech. The second category looks into strategies, and encourages an all-of-society, all-of-government and all-of-region approaches to tackle common regional challenges. The last category consists of research, know-how, and technology-sharing platforms for ASEAN stakeholders to share information. The net result of these initiatives would enhance exchanges between governments, research institutions and the private sector in the region.
Operationally, there is also an integration of traditional climate change mitigation methodologies like crop rotation, renewable energy use (e.g., biogas listed by ASEAN Secretariat), crop diversification, expanding food reserves, with new digital technologies some of which were mentioned in the sections above. More importantly, there are now strong incentives to develop some measures, alongside technological innovations. Southeast Asia is luring foreign investors and tech-entrepreneurs/technologists’ R&D collaboration by offering its potential for regional multiracial and multiethnic test-bedding or trials, procurement opportunities made possible by rising or emerging economies; Vietnam and the Philippines are among the fastest-growing economies in the world, and growing pools of young consumers.
If these measures and tech test-bedding are successful, they can be exported to the rest of the Global South. South Asia, the African continent, and South America, which have similar weather, geographical position closer to the tropics, economic developmental conditions, and demographic factors, can try out some of the technologies already test-bedded or implemented successfully in the ASEAN region. ASEAN countries can also play the role of transferers of knowhow and best practices to others in the Global South. In other words, they can be climate tech and digital tech pathfinders.
The Global South regions are also rapidly undergoing urbanization and the formation of densely-populated mega-cities. There may be a demand for more urban farms and vegetable gardens (e.g. rooftop gardens) to supplement the main food supply chain of food imports. Just like Singapore’s strategy during the pandemic, such urban farms and gardens may be able to sustain food supply during times of emergencies and crises for a short few weeks before imported food arrives, delayed by global supply chain disruptions. With greenhouses, hydroponics and aeroponics, urban farms and gardens can produce all-year diversified crops without the traditional concerns of weather disruptions, pestilence and soil erosion or deterioration.
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