FOOD CROPS. Vietnam cassava achievement and learnt lessons. Nguyen Van Bo, Hoang Kim, Le Quoc Doanh, Tran Ngoc Ngoan, Bui Chi Buu, Rod Lefroy, Le Huy Ham, Mai Thanh Phung, Tran Vien Thong. The report provides information on Production and consumption of cassava over the world and in Vietnam; Achievement and learnt lessons from Vietnam cassava in a half decade of reservation and development; Conclusion. This is the first speech of three of “Cassava in Vietnam: Save and Grow ”. Key workds: Vietnam cassava, cassava production and consumption, achievements and learnt lessons.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a crop for food, animal feed, starch processing and currently main raw materials for biofuel processing which has high comparative advantage of many countries in the world and Vietnam. In 2011, there are 100 cassava production countries over the world with total areas of 19.64 million ha, average fresh root yield of 12.83 tons/ha, production of 252.20 million tons (FAO, 2013a)[5]. In Vietnam, cassava is an important food crop which ranks the third in terms of production after rice and maize. In 2011, the national cassava area reached 560,000 ha, average yield of 17.63 ton/ha, production of 9.87 million tons (GSO, 2013a) [32]. Global Cassava Conference held in Belgium in 2008 delivered the message: “Cassava is a gift of the world, opportunity for poor farmers and challenge to scientists”(Claude M. Fauquest 2008)[4]. Instructions on using cassava to produce starch, bio-ethanol, modified starch, animal feed and bio-film are increasingly interested. Vietnam is complimented on spectacular cassava yield which was increased 400% from 8.5 tons/ha in 2000 to 36 tons/ha in 2011 in many smallholders, according to press release “Cassava’s huge potential as 21st century crops ” by FAO in May 2013, (FAO, 2013b) [6]. Cassava dried chips and starch of Vietnam are ones of ten key export products. Vietnam currently has 13 bio-ethanol factories with capacity of 1067.7 million litres of bio-ethanol per year, 66 industrial starch processing factories, more than 2000 manual processing units (Hoang Kim, Le Huy Ham et al. 2013) [12]. Cassava is a choice of many poor smallholders and people who are living in drought, bad fertile soil and a choice of many processing and trading enterprises thanks to its high profits, easy growing, less caring, low cost, easy harvest and process. Cassava producing, processing, consuming, researching and developing are opportunities, prospects of farmers and enterprises of Vietnam as well as many coutries in the world, however, cassava, at the same time, faces many risks and constraints.

This report provides general information on Production, consumption of cassava in the world and Vietnam; Achievement and cassava learnt lesson of Vietnam in a half decade of reservation and development; Conclusion. This is the first in series of three speeches: “Vietnam cassava, reservation and development”.