Vietnam Cassava Association held the 3rd term Congress in Tay Ninh

The Standing Committee members of the Vietnam Cassava Association, term III, introduced themselves at the congress.

Attending the conference were Mr. Nguyen Nhu Cuong - Director of the Department of Crop Production, representatives of specialized agencies of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Home Affairs. In addition, there were representatives of the Embassy of the Lao Democratic Republic in Vietnam, the Cassava Association of Laos and Thailand; the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and member units and enterprises of the Association. On the side of Tay Ninh province, there were Mr. Vo Duc Trong - Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and Mr. Nguyen Dinh Xuan - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

In his opening speech, Mr. Nghiem Minh Tien - Chairman of the Vietnam Cassava Association said that cassava is the third most important food crop in Vietnam after rice and corn. Currently, the cassava growing area nationwide is about 530,000 hectares/year, with a total output of over 10 million tons/year. The export turnover of cassava products increased from 0.958 billion USD (in 2018) to nearly 1.5 billion USD (in 2022). Cassava and the processing industry have contributed to creating jobs for over 1.2 million workers, mainly in the midland and mountainous areas, making a significant contribution to hunger eradication, poverty reduction, and economic and social stability.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Xuan - Director of Tay Ninh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development spoke at the conference.

According to Mr. Tien, this Congress aims to evaluate and review the results of the past 5 years. The Congress elects a new Executive Committee with a new vision for the next 5 years, leading the Vietnam Cassava Association to increasingly sustainable development.

Speaking at the discussion, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Xuan - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that in recent years, the cassava area of the province has continuously increased, by the end of 2022, the whole province has nearly 62,000 hectares of cassava, with an average yield of over 32 tons/ha. The post-harvest processing industry has developed strongly, currently the province has 65 cassava starch processing factories, with a total annual capacity of over 4 million tons of tubers. The total designed capacity is about 5,772 tons of products/day (173,000 tons of products/month), of which 18 companies and enterprises have a capacity of 50 - 300 tons of flour/day and 47 establishments with a capacity of less than 50 tons of flour/day).

According to Mr. Nguyen Dinh Xuan, in the coming years, cassava will still be the province's traditional industrial crop, one of the raw materials for many industries, food and Ethanol production to create E5 RON 92 bio-fuel to replace RON 92 mineral gasoline currently in the domestic gasoline market.

Therefore, Tay Ninh will continue to maintain and develop the production area of about 55,000 - 65,000 hectares, improve productivity and aim to control mosaic disease with mosaic-resistant cassava varieties with high productivity; at the same time, continue to innovate processing technology, invest in developing production lines, diversify post-starch products, utilize post-processing by-products, and increase the value of the cassava production chain in the province.

Former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh inspected the testing of cassava varieties resistant to mosaic disease in 2019.

The Congress elected 22 members of the Executive Committee, including 12 Standing Committee members and 5 Vice Presidents of the Association. Master Nghiem Minh Tien was re-elected as President of the Vietnam Cassava Association for the third term.

On this occasion, the Vietnam Cassava Association and individuals with outstanding achievements in cassava production and processing in the period 2018 - 2023 were awarded Certificates of Merit by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Minh Duong

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