Vietnam - Korea Seminar on Sesame
(Baonghean.vn) - On the morning of October 9, in Vinh City (Nghe An), the National Agricultural Extension Center in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghe An organized a Vietnam - Korea Workshop on sustainable sesame production in Vietnam.
Attending the workshop on Nghe An province's side were comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, representatives of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, People's Committees of districts and agricultural cooperatives in the area.
On the side of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, there were Mr. Le Quoc Thanh - Director of the National Agricultural Extension Center, representatives of the Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), representatives of the Korean Embassy in Vietnam and the KREI Project (Korea).
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| Representatives from the Department of Crop Production, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, National Agricultural Extension Center, representatives from the Korean Embassy and leaders of Nghe An province attended the workshop. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
Sesameis a short-term industrial and food crop with high nutritional value and is an important and long-standing oilseed crop, grown in 70 countries with an area of about 11.743 million hectares;sesame productsconsumed by many countries, of which the Korean market is the most popular. In 2019, Vietnam had a sesame area of about 31.18 thousand hectares, a decrease of nearly 20 thousand hectares compared to 2015 (54.84 thousand hectares); output was about 28.87 thousand tons.
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| Representative of the Department of Crop Production, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development gave an overview of the potential and advantages of sesame. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
Nghe An is the province with the largest sesame area in the North Central region, with 3,500 hectares. Currently, the province has a number of high-quality sesame varieties such as V6, VD11... Nghe An's annual sesame output reaches about 1,700 tons.
Sesame is a highly nutritious product, so the World Health Organization recommends consuming 13.5 kg/year/person. However, Vietnam has only achieved 7 kg/person. In recent times, due to the impact of climate change and other crops, sesame productivity and acreage have tended to decrease. In addition, due to little investment, sesame seeds and genes tend to degenerate...
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| Comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee delivered a welcome speech at the Workshop on finding sustainable production directions for sesame. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
Therefore, the workshop is an opportunity for ministries, branches and Nghe An province to review the current situation and potential of sesame in order tofind solutions to promote, sesame production in a stable and sustainable manner.
At the workshop, representatives of the Department of Crop Production, the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, the Institute of Oil and Oil Plants Research, Korean agricultural experts, representatives of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghe An and a number of sesame trading and processing enterprises in Nghe An spoke about the current situation and some initial results in research, bringing sesame into the value chain of production, processing and consumption.
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| Farmers in Dien Chau district harvest sesame. Photo: Archive |
Attending the workshop, comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee on behalf of the provincial leadersNghe Anwelcome speech to the workshop. On the basis of introducing some basic features of the potential and socio-economic situation of the province, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee introduced some mechanisms and policies to support investment in the agricultural sector of the province, so he really hopes that the Korean Embassy and businesses in the agricultural sector willsupport investment resourcesImprove seed quality, yield and value of sesame plants.
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| Nghe An provincial leaders presented souvenirs to representatives of the Korean Embassy and the KREI Project. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
The workshop is an opportunity to enhance cooperation between Vietnam and Korea in general and to bring Nghe An sesame to the Korean market in particular. Nghe An is a locality that is often affected by drought; the potential for sesame development is huge. Currently, Nghe An also has 25 Korean enterprises operating, including some enterprises operating in the food chain, so it hopes that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Korean Embassy will pay attention and create conditions for sesame products to be invested in and improved from production to processing to participate in linkages to continuously increase value.