CBN-V Video Archives - S1-05
Why Vietnamese Develop Cassava Plantations while Rice is Abundant

Dung, Nguyen Lan

Vietnam National University, 1 Tran Thanh Tong St., Hanoi, Vietnam dungnguyenlan@hn.vnn.vn

        At present, Vietnam is ranked second in the list of rice-exporting countries of the world. Although rice is abundant, cassava yields are also high, at 1773 and 1807 thousand tons in 1998 and 1999 respectively). One part of cassava is used for breeding, another is mostly used for industry. Beside hand-made processing, cassava is mostly collected and processed in large scale by VEDAN-VIETNAM company, creating different products: for instance glutamic acid, lysine, native starch, modified starch and glucose syrup. To utilize all the large amount of harvested cassava, we successfully researched the simple technology for preservation of cassava trunk such as: grind for use as material for Woody ear (Auricularia spp.) cultivation, then after re-sterilizatiing the substrate for cultivation of Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus spp.). From 1 kg of cassava trunk, the farmers can cultivate 1000g of Woody ear and 600 of Oyster mushroom (fresh weight). Because of the benefit from cassava growing, Vietnamese farmers continue to expand cassava plantation, especially in the midland and mountainous regions.

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