Cassava is considered a poverty-reducing crop because it is easy to cultivate, drought-resistant and requires little investment. However, this is also a crop that often encounters pests and diseases, affecting productivity. Therefore, to limit the harmful effects of pests and diseases, especially cassava mosaic disease, and increase cultivation efficiency, the provincial Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection (BVTV) has implemented a model of selecting the HN1 cassava variety to serve cassava production in the province.
Selection of promising cassava varieties and lines
Cassava is one of Vietnam's main export products in recent years. With high competitive advantage compared to other crops, the cassava growing area is increasingly expanding.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development , the country currently has over 511,000 hectares, with an output of 10.43 million tons. In Binh Thuan alone, in 2023, the total area of this starchy crop will be approximately 27,000 hectares, of which cassava is grown by farmers in Ham Tan, Ham Thuan Nam, Bac Binh districts... on a fairly large area.
For a long time, cassava has been a crop with many advantages, but it is also facing many difficulties and challenges. That is, besides the degradation of cultivated land, the problem of pests and diseases such as broom, red spider, pink mealybug, tuber rot, and viral mosaic disease is also happening seriously, in which cassava growers in Binh Thuan are no exception. Notably, diseases not only affect the yield and quality of cassava in one crop but also spread from the previous crop to the next crop, spreading to other production areas through seed sources and disease vectors. Therefore, in order to limit the harmful effects of pests and diseases, especially cassava mosaic disease and increase cultivation efficiency, in 2023, the provincial Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection (BVTV) selected the HN1 cassava variety for production in the province.
Accordingly, the demonstration model of cassava production HN1 with an area of 1 hectare was carried out at farmer Dang Quoc's household, Song Phan commune, Ham Tan district. The planting density is 12,400 plants/ha, from June to December 2023.
During the implementation process, the provincial Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, in coordination with the Ham Tan District Agricultural Technical and Service Center, applied a synchronous technical process. The land was cleared, plowed, and planted 3-5 cm deep. Cassava was cultivated using rainwater, without supplementary irrigation. Brown spot and leaf blight diseases were monitored for 4 months after planting...
Productive, less pests and diseases
After more than 6 months of planting, the results of the experiment and the actual evaluation of the grower showed that the HN1 cassava variety has a fresh tuber yield of 30.8 tons/ha, with an average tuber weight of 4.7 kg per bush, a stem and leaf yield of 21 tons/ha, and a high starch content of 27.2%. Currently, with a stable selling price of 2,500 VND/kg, the total income is about 77 million VND/ha. This means that the HN1 cassava variety not only brings high profitability but also has positive economic potential for growers.
In particular, the HN1 variety also has a superior multiplication coefficient because the plant is taller and has a straighter stem than traditional varieties, each stem can multiply 17 cassava cuttings while traditional varieties can only produce 10 - 12 cuttings. The HN1 cassava variety shows good disease resistance with low infection levels for brown spot disease (2%) and leaf blight disease (2.5%). In particular, the ability to resist leaf mosaic disease and to withstand the witch's broom disease is stable. In addition, this variety shows no signs of infection with root rot or leaf mosaic caused by viruses. This makes the HN1 cassava variety an optimal choice with stable production capacity and is less affected by pests and diseases.
In the current reality, the virus mosaic disease is still causing damage to cassava plants in the province (statistics in the last week of 2023 show an infected area of 72 hectares, with a disease rate of 10 - 20%). The disease has arisen and caused damage to cassava plants in Ham Tan, La Gi, and Bac Binh districts. The virus mosaic disease that damages cassava is identified as the main pest, growing in area, due to the lack of proactive control over disease-free seed sources...
According to Mr. Do Van Bao - Head of the Provincial Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, based on the positive economic efficiency of the model, farmers can consider expanding the production area of HN1 cassava variety to increase income. In addition, people still need to maintain disease management measures to protect and improve efficiency. The Department also requested the People's Committees of communes and towns to continue to develop plans and provide support for organizations and individuals in the area to continue implementing the model of "cultivating HN1 cassava variety resistant to virus mosaic disease" in the production seasons in the coming time.
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