Corn is Vietnam’s second largest annual crop, after rice, in terms of cultivated area.  However, corn production area is located only where other better cash crops cannot be grown (such as in the mountainous regions with poor soil fertility) or lack of water for other better cash crops, intercropped after a better cash crop (such as soybeans in the upland area, or rice in the lowland area when water supply is short for rice).  Since it is primarily being grown in unfavorable conditions, Vietnam’s corn crop is usually yield diminished or damaged by insects and weeds. 
 
Corn is one of several local crops such as cassava and rice (broken rice, rice bran), which are used to supply the quickly growing feed industry. And local corn production has been not able to satisfy the demand in recent years.  Imported corn is brought in with the volume of about 2.0 million tons each year. As such, corn producers are under pressure to quickly increase their productivity in order to satisfy the increasing demand.  Significantly improving average yields by using high-yielding varieties seems the most likely way to achieve the government’s objectives of increasing corn production for supplying the feed sector. 

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Vietnam calendar year (CY) 2014 corn production was 5.19 million tons, a 105,000-ton decrease compared to Post’s last forecast (see Vietnam G&F update October 2014). This is due to smaller harvested area caused by adverse weather in the north of Vietnam.