The fulcrum for sustainable agriculture

The fulcrum for sustainable agriculture

Since the beginning of 2019, Tran Duc The, a resident of Nghe An’s Thanh Chuong district, has doubled his family’s cassava growing area to four hectares. Currently, each harvest season yields his family about VND100 million ($4,350) in profit after deducting all relevant expenses, an income level he could never dream of when planting crop trees like wattle and sugar cane.

The said that local people used to plant wattle and sugar cane. With wattle, they could harvest every seven years, earning approximately VND20 million ($870) per ha only after deducting all related expenses.

The life of local residents in Thanh Chuong has improved a great deal since cassava trees were brought to the area by Nghe An-based Intimex Vietnam JSC, a member of private conglomerate BRG Group.

According to Dinh Van Binh, Secretary of Thanh Lam Party Committee, cassava trees have brought fortune to local people. Local residents were trained in cultivation techniques and are supported with fertilisers, and at harvest season all produce is taken up by Intimex Nghe An to feed its cassava starch processing plant in the province.

Nguyen Van Que, Chairman of Thanh Chuong People’s Committee, shared that as growing cassava is more profitable than other crops, local people have abandoned wattle and sugar cane and been shifting into growing cassava.

The whole district is now home to 2,500ha of cassava plantations and the starch processing plant has grown into a bright spot on the local business scene, each year paying more than VND9 billion ($391,300) into the local budget.

With a processing capacity of 150-200 tonnes of starch a day, and products mainly for export, Nghe An Seafood and Agricultural Products JSC, which manages and operates the starch processing plant, is set to develop further sustainable material growing areas in the province.

To stabilise material sources and strengthen production to meet local and export demand, the parent company BRG has instructed the company to improve production lines and constantly innovate technologies and equipment to boost quality and capacity.

Thanks to a clear development vision, the company has posted a series of achievements with significant improvements in product quality and production. Cassava consumption was maintained at high volumes and strict consistency, providing local farmers with stable incomes.

Cassava starch, apart from feeding the Chinese market, has been sold to local traders, and by-products sold to diverse local private partners such as C.P. Vietnam and Hoa Thang Company.

According to Tran Quoc Hoan, deputy general director of Intimex Vietnam, which manages Nghe An Seafood and Agricultural Products, locally-sourced materials could only meet 50 per cent of the starch processing plant’s material demand and they often need to import cassava from Laos.

Therefore, it is necessary to continue enlarging cassava plantation areas in Thanh Chuong and outlying locations with the application of sustainable farming methods to yield products of enhanced quality with better business efficiency.

Apart from starch processing, BRG is managing and exploiting two white-leg shrimp farming areas in Nghe An’s Dien Chau district and neighbouring Thanh Hoa province’s Quang Xuong district. Under strict guidance from BRG, Intimex Nghe An has applied advanced breeding methods at its shrimp farms. All breeding processes have been strictly controlled to ensure no antibiotics are used in the whole process.

By virtue of close control, the company’s shrimp products have been selling very well in the market. Apart from serving retail customers, the products are bought by frozen seafood processing plants for processing and packaging before market roll-out.

In parallel to production and processing, Intimex Nghe An has paid due attention to the environmental factor. Particularly, the company has invested in a biogas system to effectively exploit waste from production and a decent wastewater treatment system that was certified by Nghe An Department of Natural Resources and Environment for meeting set standards. The company has recently made another step ahead through installing an automated surveillance system directly connected to the department to ensure more effective environmental control.