Building a cassava starch processing factory in Anh Son: Benefits or harms?

(Baonghean) - Anh Son district has just submitted a request to the departments and the provincial People's Committee regarding the construction of a cassava starch processing factory in the district. There are many conflicting opinions and views on this issue. Should it be or not - the issue needs to be analyzed and viewed thoroughly and objectively based on an analysis of actual conditions...

It can be said that Anh Son district's proposal to build a cassava starch processing factory on an area of ​​15 hectares, with an output of 20,000 tons of starch/year, in the difficult context due to the impact of the economic recession is a positive sign in attracting investment, especially in the field of agricultural and forestry processing. When the factory comes into operation, in addition to creating jobs for hundreds of workers, it will contribute to increasing the value of agricultural products made by the people. However, for the construction of an additional cassava starch processing factory, an agricultural processing field considered "sensitive" and the raw material area in conditions that have been almost stably planned to develop other crops, it is necessary to consider and start from the actual base.

Cassava processing line at Intimex Thanh Chuong Cassava Starch Factory.

Anh Son has a total natural area of ​​60,292 hectares, of which agricultural land is only over 14,445 hectares, accounting for over 23% of the total area. Of the existing agricultural land area, more than 3,500 hectares of land have been allocated for wet rice production, nearly 2,000 hectares of riverside alluvial land for growing beans and peanuts. The remaining nearly 10,000 hectares include copper soil, hill soil, valley soil and hill soil (red-yellow feralit growing on shale) which are very suitable for developing raw material crops and industrial crops. Recognizing this strength, Anh Son focuses on developing 3 key industries: tea, sugarcane and rubber. With the clear identification of this "tripod" position, the district has planned and focused on directing the implementation of industrial crop areas quite clearly, initially affirming economic efficiency.

First of all, for industrial tea trees with an existing area of ​​1,858 hectares (of which the commercial tea area is 1,580 hectares), the average yield is 13 tons/ha, creating a fresh tea bud output of more than 20,000 tons/year, meeting the raw material needs of 3 tea processing factories including 5 lines with a total processing capacity of 68 tons/day and a number of private tea processing facilities. In the district, tea trees have long been identified as one of the key priority crops for development in the planning area with the promotion of replacing the area of ​​seed tea with LDP1, LDP2 tea branches, promoting the development of tea from the right bank to the left bank, applying scientific and technical advances to increase the productivity and quality of commercial tea. Thanks to that, Anh Son has not only built the Nghe An tea brand "Nghe An Tea" with green tea products, CTC tea, black tea..., but also has the brand "Hung Son Tea" increasingly affirming its quality. Tea trees have proven to be very effective in Anh Son with an average income of 42 million VND/year for each hectare of tea, after deducting expenses, tea growers earn over 30 million VND/ha. In particular, in the area, there are areas with intensive investment, irrigation systems installed, productivity up to 25-26 tons/ha, generating revenue of nearly 100 million VND/ha. With an area of ​​nearly 2,000 hectares of tea in Anh Son, it has actively contributed to stabilizing the tea area of ​​the whole province of nearly 7,000 hectares in the three districts of Thanh Chuong, Anh Son and Con Cuong, bringing the export value of this plant to over 7 million USD each year.

Regarding raw sugarcane, although it developed later than industrial tea, along with the relocation of the sugar factory from Hung Phu (Hung Nguyen) to Dinh Son commune, it created favorable conditions for Anh Son to plan and develop raw sugarcane. With the advantages of low investment, easy to grow, and adaptability to many types of soil, raw sugarcane has become an effective hunger eradication and poverty reduction plant not only for the right bank but also exploiting the area of ​​​​barren land and low efficiency on the left bank. However, after many pressing seasons with low sugar prices, the raw material area is not guaranteed, causing ups and downs for the factory. Currently, the factory is maintaining a standing sugarcane area of ​​1,400 ha/1,800 ha of planned area with an output of 100,000 tons, basically ensuring the operation of the Song Lam Sugar Factory. However, according to Mr. Phan Dinh Duc, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director of Song Lam Sugarcane Joint Stock Company, the company is implementing a plan to increase the factory's capacity from 750 tons/day to 1,000 tons/day. In addition to focusing on investment to improve productivity, it is required to ensure the development of raw material areas according to the plan, otherwise the factory will be short of raw materials during the pressing season.

As for rubber, this is a fairly new tree in Anh Son, but it is also determined to become a long-term key tree of the province. The Provincial People's Committee has also planned the rubber planting area in 3 districts: Anh Son, Thanh Chuong and Que Phong with an area of ​​over 9,300 hectares and Nghe An Rubber Joint Stock Company has invested in new planting in a systematic manner. For Anh Son district, the Provincial People's Committee has planned to plant more than 4,600 hectares of rubber, however, after adjusting to return more than 1,000 hectares in Cao Veu, the remaining planned planting area is 3,642 hectares. Here, Nghe An Rubber Joint Stock Company has planted 1,600 hectares. Although this is a new tree in Anh Son, it is a key, perennial tree, so it is necessary to properly implement the planning, synchronous solutions to ensure the planting and care process.

Returning to the proposal of Anh Son district to build a cassava starch processing factory in Hoa Son commune with an output of 20,000 tons of starch/year and requesting permission to plan cassava raw material areas in the three districts of Anh Son, many opinions said that this policy of Tuong Duong and Ky Son not only causes the risk of breaking the "tripod" of the three industrial crops mentioned above, because cassava will infiltrate the raw material areas planned to grow other crops, damaging the structure of the source of micronutrients in the soil, but will also break the planning for forestry trees in the remaining districts.

On the other hand, with an output of 20,000 tons of starch/year equivalent to a processing capacity of 500 tons of cassava tubers/day, the planning area needs over 3,000 hectares of cassava. This is very difficult to do, because in Anh Son district, in addition to some existing areas of "illegal" cassava cultivation, agricultural production land is almost completely closed in planning; in Tuong Duong and Ky Son districts, according to the opinion of the Department of Agriculture, although the land is large, it has been planned for forestry, it is impossible to destroy forests to grow cassava. The agricultural land area is very small, scattered, and not concentrated, so the construction of a factory with a planned raw material radius of up to 100 km, extremely difficult terrain, investors need to consider.

In addition, according to some documents in the agricultural sector and clearly proven in practice, if cassava is grown on a large area, it will cause desertification of land resources, erosion, and local flooding, affecting the environment. Scientists in this field said: Cassava roots take organic matter from the soil and release an acid that is harmful to crops, while hardening the soil and destroying microorganisms that are beneficial to crops. In addition to the impact on land resources as mentioned above, the construction of cassava starch processing plants poses a high risk of air and water pollution. In fact, most cassava starch processing facilities when first put into operation cause environmental pollution and it takes many years, with a price to partly overcome this situation.

In the province, there are currently 2 cassava starch processing factories with relatively large capacity: Intimex cassava starch factory; Yen Thanh cassava starch factory. Both of these factories, when they first went into production, became "hot spots" for environmental pollution. For the Intimex Thanh Chuong cassava starch factory with an output of 32,000 tons/year, after more than 10 years of operation, for more than half of that time, the factory had to struggle with the consequences of wastewater and emissions causing pollution that directly affected the living environment and aquatic resources on the Rao Gang River. Since 2009, after more than 5 years of production, with the support of the AES Energy Group (USA), the factory has put into operation a wastewater treatment area using CDM technology - microbiological technology, then the environmental problem has been resolved and pollution has been minimized.

Yen Thanh Cassava Starch Factory invested by the General Machinery Corporation has a processing capacity of only half that of Intimex Cassava Starch Factory. However, during the production process, due to the poor filtration pond system and poor environmental treatment technology, it has caused serious environmental pollution to the surrounding areas. Only by applying CDM technology can environmental pollution be reduced.

A current reality is that although the province has planned a 4,500-hectare raw material area for two cassava starch processing factories (of which Intimex cassava starch factory has planned 2,500 hectares in Thanh Chuong and a small area in Nam Dan; Yen Thanh cassava starch factory has planned 1,500 hectares mainly in Yen Thanh) and the cassava factories have entered the concentrated processing season. However, through actual surveys, in the 2013-2014 processing season, due to fluctuations in area, land degradation, and sharp decline in productivity, most factories are in a state of shortage of raw materials for processing, with raw materials only ensuring 80% of capacity.

So, from that reality, should we build another cassava starch factory in Anh Son district - a district where the natural land area, especially agricultural land, is not large and more importantly, the land area has been basically planned for other key crops, which confirms higher economic efficiency and sustainability than cassava? And is this construction appropriate when the existing cassava starch factories are not yet meeting the demand for raw materials for the current capacity and the risk of environmental pollution when put into production? Mr. Pham Trung Thai - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nghe An Rubber Joint Stock Company stated his opinion: The company will strictly implement the group's regulations that during the period of basic rubber tree construction (5.5 years), only legumes and plants with nodular roots are allowed to be intercropped, strictly prohibiting the intercropping of high-yield cassava. If households are found intercropping cassava in the rubber planning area, they will be handled according to regulations and the plot will be recovered.

On the side of the agricultural sector, Mr. Ho Ngoc Sy, member of the Provincial Party Committee, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: Implementing the policy of not encouraging the development of cassava acreage in the province, the sector requires that on the approved acreage in localities, units need to strictly implement the planning. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will review the approved planning of crops, then there will be a basis to determine whether Anh Son district still has land for growing cassava or not? Mr. Ho Ngoc Sy also emphasized that in addition to the issue of non-overlapping planning, the issue of environmental treatment technology needs special attention if the situation at other factories is not to be repeated.

Thus, it can be said that, considering all objective conditions of location, land planning, issues affecting the planning of crops with stable areas, confirming the effectiveness and limitations of raw cassava, warning of the risk of environmental pollution when the factory goes into production..., it shows that: the construction of a cassava starch processing factory in Anh Son needs to be considered and reviewed thoroughly, must be from a clear and transparent "benefits" - "harms" perspective, according to long-term strategic thinking and truly responsible with the motto for the benefit of the people, for the development of the province.

Hung Chau