The cassava revolution in Vietnam
Le Huy Ham1, Hoang Kim2, Nguyen Thi Truc Mai3, Nguyen Bach Mai4,
Reihardt Howeler5
Email: LHHAM@agi.ac.vn
1. Director General, Institute of Agricultural Genetics, Tuliem, Hanoi, Vietnam.
2. Nong Lam University - Thu Duc district - Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam.
3. Hue University of Agricukture and Forestry, 102 Phung Hung street, Hue City, Vietnam.
4. Tay Nguyen University, 567 Le Duan - Buon Ma Thuot - Dak Lak, Vietnam. 5. CIAT, Cali, Colombia.
Cassava has become the third most important export crop in 20 years in Vietnam. In Vietnam cassava
(Manihot esculenta Crantz) has been converted from food crop to industrial crop with high speed in
recent years. Thank to wide adaptability cassava can be grown in all ecological regions in Vietnam, even
in poor sloppy soil regions, contributing significantly to income of poor farmers. For the last decades
cassava production has been changed dramatically: Between 1975 and 2000, cassava yields in the
country ranged from 6 to 8 t/ha, and the crop was grown mainly for human food and animal feeding.
This situation changed remarkably with the introduction by CIAT scientists in 1988 of high-yielding
breeding lines and new varieties from Thailand. Area under cassava has been raised from 237,600 ha in
2000 to 560,000 ha in 2014, productivity has been raised from 6-8 ton/ha to 18.3 ton/ha in 2014. Export
value of cassava is about 1.3-1.5 billion USD/year, ranging this crop in third importance among export
crop, after only rice and coffee.
Vietnam Cassava Conservation and Sustainable Development has been very successful, as indicated by
the results of trials and demonstrations conducted in Tay Ninh, Dak Lak, Phu Yen and Dong Nai
provinces, where farmers using the improved technologies and practices boosted cassava yields from
8.5 t/ha to 36 t/ha - a more than four fold increase. The Vietnam National Cassava Program (VNCP) has
introduced various methodologies, named “6M” and “10T”, as well as Farmer Participatory Research
(FPR), as collaborative experiences that helped to bring advanced technologies into production for
millions of poor farmers. This included the selection of high-yielding varieties and the testing and
selection by farmers of locally appropriate technologies.
Cassava in Vietnam: Trends, Challenges and Direction. Cassava is now considered to be most suitable
crop for biofuel production in Vietnam because of its excess and low cost of production compare to
other potential biofuel crop, like maize or sugarcane. Cassava in Vietnam has great potential but also big
challenges. To make cassava production profitable and sustainable there are high needs for varietal
improvement for diseases resistance and starch content, as well as cultivation technology. Modern
methods of biotechnology for plant improvement, like genetic engineering, marker assisted selection
and other methods of modern biotechnology should be involved in cassava breeding. A Joint laboratory
between CIAT-RIKEN (Japan) and Agricultural Genetics Institute (AGI-Vietnam) “Cassava Molecular
Breeding” has been established in AGI as an opened platform for cassava research and breeding in
Vietnam and the region.