October 22, 2010

GM corn to improve Vietnam's self-sufficiency in animal feed

Vietnam is growing corn from genetically modified seed to help make it more self sufficient in the production of animal feed.

Trial crops have been established in the northern province of Hung Yen and some southeastern provinces.

At present, the country has to rely on foreign sources to produce supplies, despite its great agricultural advantages, said Le Ba Lich, chairman of the Vietnam Animal Feed Association.

The association estimates about 1.6 million tonnes of corn will be imported this year, up from 350,000 tonnes last year. It also has to import 90%-95% more of other protein-rich food, such as soy, and 95%-98% more of mineral substances and vitamins.

In the first nine months this year, US$1.6 billion was spent on imported material for animal feed. "Because of this dependence, animal feed prices are 10% to 15% higher than in other Asian countries," said Lich.

At present Vietnam has more than 240 animal-feed mills, but none of them are able to produce any of their own basic raw materials. Another problem is that many factories have few machines to process feedstuffs that require high technology, such as minerals, vitamins, and aromatic substances.

"The State also does not have any specific outline for the animal-feed processing sector," Lich said.

He said that to resolve the problem, the most important achievement would be to set aside special areas for growing the basic crops. "We need to allocate land for this and have a detailed scheme for cultivating suitable crops," he said.