Vietnam eyes increased cassava production

Jointly hosted by the Tay Ninh provincial People’s Committee, the January 15 event brought together representatives from China and Thailand’s cassava associations, ASEAN business partners, local experts and enterprises across the country in the field.

Mainly shipped to China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Malaysia, cassava and cassava products are currently the fourth largest hard currency earner of Vietnam’s agriculture sector, following coffee, rice and cashew nut.

Around 3 million tonnes of the products are exported every year, bringing home more than 1.3 billion USD.

According to VCA, Vietnam plants nearly 600,000 hectares of cassava annually at an average yield of 17.63 tonnes per hectare.

Tay Ninh province ranks first in terms of average yield and second in cultivation area.

It has over 50,000 hectares grown with cassava with per-ha yield of 31.7 tonnes.

It is now home to 45 out of 88 cassava starch factories across the country. These plants boast a combined capacity of 750,000 tonnes of starch per year.

Bui Cong Ngoc, a local farmer, said after years of growing low yield crops, his family gave cassava a try and soon discovered its economic efficiency. He has been growing cassava since then and 10 years after, he owns 10 hectares of cassava with an average output of 50 tonnes per hectare.

Chairman of the VCA Nguyen Van Lang expressed his belief that cassava will become one of the staples helping reduce poverty in Vietnam in the long run.

There is an urgent need to apply advanced technology and adopt improved varieties into cultivation in order to boost the crop output and increase competitiveness, he added.-VNA