HA NOI (VNS)— Farmer Ha Van Can in the Tan Son District of northern Phu Tho Province started growing cassava across seven hectares in 2010 to cultivate supplies for an ethanol plant.
However, as the Tam Nong plant has not yet started production, Can could not sell his crops. He may have another option to sell cassava as a foodstuff but he would barely break even. “The price was just so low that I decided not to harvest this year,” he said.
In total, farmers across three poor districts in Phu Tho Province have grown cassava on 8,000 hectares to supply the Tam Nong plant. Now the cassava is ready to harvest but the plant remains idle, pushing thousands of farmers into financial peril.
Tam Nong is one of six ethanol plants nationwide which had been approved by the Government as part of a bigger programme dating back to 2010 that aimed to boost the production and consumption of eco-friendly E5 biofuel in Viet Nam.
E5 biofuel is hoped to offer a more eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels which are rapidly depleting.
However, since its introduction to Viet Nam, sales of E5 has been very slow, which in turn has rendered these plants obsolete.
Since August 2010, total E5 biofuel sales stood at a modest 35,000 cubic metres. Meanwhile, according to the designs, these plants were capable of producing 300,000 cubic metres of ethanol per day, enough to blend 6 million cubic metres of E5 biofuel. This figure is believed to equate to 93 per cent of expected fuel demand in Viet Nam for 2014.
According to experts and producers, E5 biofuel has struggled to carve a niche in the fuel market because of consumers’ misconceptions. Many of them confuse the name “ethanol” with “methadol” – a toxic flammable liquid that is not allowed to be blended into fuel. Due to this misunderstanding, many consumers even blamed ethanol fuel for causing motorbike fires and explosions.
Another reason for its unpopularity, according to experts, was that fuel producers themselves showed little interest in biofuels because selling a new type of fuel would necessitate investment in logistics such as additional storage and gasoline pumps. That was why although there are 12,000 petrol stations around the country, there were only 155 biofuel stations.
At cultivation level, the situation is even tougher for farmers because while cassava is the main ingredient for biofuel production, it is not a type of plant popular for other uses. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the cultivation area for cassava in Viet Nam would remain at the figure of 500,000 hectares until 2015 and decrease to 450,000 hectares by 2020.
Director of the ministry’s Cultivation Department Le Quoc Doanh said cassava was typically planted on steep land. If the cultivation area expanded, it would cause negative impacts on land quality and forest protection activities.
“That is why growing cassava should be monitored with caution,” he said.
Doanh said his ministry was not informed of the cultivation of cassava for ethanol production, adding that he would work with the plants to ensure better co-operation.
To remove the bottleneck, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is compiling a proposal to boost production of E5 biofuel. According to the proposal, since the beginning of next year, biofuel will be manufactured and sold for transportation use in seven key localities. Meanwhile, from December 2015 it will be mandatory for road vehicles to use E5.
This proposal has raised the hopes among thousands of farmers like Can who cannot wait to sell cassava after years of delay. — VNS
Đăng ký: VietNam News
