Viet Nam Cassava Association has coordinated with People’s Committee of Tay Ninh province organized the International Conference “Sustainable development of cassava in Vietnam”. Workshop took place on 01.15.2015 in Tay Ninh, with the participation of about 300 delegates and guests who are professionals, scientists, inbound and outbound enterprises.
Cassava (tapioca) has been known as an important food crop. Currently cassava (tapioca) account for the fourth in export of agricultural field after coffee, rice and cashew nut.
At the conference, the report of the People’s Committee of Tay Ninh said that the area of cassava in the province is now more than 50,000 hectares (it is the second in terms of area, after Gia Lai), but leads the the first in quantity and productivity. There are 72 cassava processing factories in Tay Ninh province. In 2014, the export volume of cassava starch in the province increased by 3.4 times compared to 2010.
The delegates, experts, scientists, inbound and out bound enterprises have contributed numerous important ideas related to growing, processing, trading, exports of cassava starchand environmental protection in production.
It is the overview contents on Vietnam Cassava field, the status, prospects and solutions for sustainable development. Reality, solutions to ensure stable development of the 3 fields planting, processing and consumption in Tay Ninh province; method, process waste water treatment ; how to develop processing technologies and enhance the value of cassava; build connection between processing plants with farmers; discusses the high-yielding cassava varieties; gaps in the cassava trade between Vietnam enterprises and China …
According to Dr. Nguyen Van Lang, chairman of the Vietnam cassava association. Cassava is one of the crops with high exports in the agricultural sector, ranking 4th after coffee, rice and cashew nut. Cassava growing area of Vietnam is now 600,000 ha, the average yield of over 17.6 tonnes / ha, distributed mainly in the mountainous areas in the North, North Central and Central Coast, Southeast .
Dr. Nguyen Van Lang said Vietnam continuously apply scientific and technical advances in farming, studied the genetic resources, new varieties of high yield as: KM94, KM98-1, 3MQ37-26 , which, like most cultivated cassava KM94.
With natural conditions and climate is suitable for the growth and development, cassava is grown mainly on sandy, rocky soil, soil, land slope. “Cassava is characterized by easy to grow, easy harvesting, processing, high profits and low costs”, Dr. Lang analysis.
Compared with previous years, Vietnam’s cassava productivity has improved (average of over 17.6 tons / ha). Cassava is grown most in the North Central Province and the Central Coast but was still the highest yield in the South East region.
Regarding the processing and consumption of cassava, according to data from the Viet Nam cassava Association, the whole country has 100 factories producing starch as industrial scale. There are seven ethanol processing plants from cassava oil. Compared to 5 years ago, this figure doubled in the number of factories and 3 times of the capacity. Main market consumption of cassava is China (accounting for over 85% of total exports), the rest are in other markets, such as Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia …
Oriented development of Viet Nam cassava in the coming time, Dr. Nguyen Van Lang said that first of all need a stable planning material area (600,000 ha), not expand the area of cassava excessively . Next is to create good raw material areas with new varieties combining intensive measures accordingly, ensuring the productivity of 30 t / ha. Besides, investors should focus on deep-processing technology after starch for ethanol production, reduce and eventually not export cassava (cassava chip) market.
“The government should have a appropriate policies on finance, science, technology, extension and branding sectors, bringing cassava become one of the main crops for agricultural exports Vietnam now, “Dr. Lang said.
