A five-year potato-growing project in Vietnam designed to reduce local poverty is off to a strong start, according to organisers.
Agricultural consultants Fresh Studio Vietnam, one of three companies involved in the Dutch-government-funded project, said the first year’s trials of five new Dutch varieties had gone well, with growers reportedly happy with their high yields, and market traders enthusiastic about the quality of the new varieties.
Initial potato-growing training programmes in four provinces across Vietnam had also been a success, the group said.
Training will be rolled out in other provinces later this year. And Fresh Studio hopes the Vietnamese government will register the five new Dutch potato varieties next year, allowing commercial production to begin.
The project ‘growing out of poverty with potato’ aims to make Vietnam more self-sufficient in potato production and improve farmer incomes, Fresh Studio said.
“The objective of the project is to give a boost to the potato sector in Vietnam by working on both the production and consumption side to increase food security,” René van Rensen, R&D Director Crops, Fresh Studio Vietnam, told Fruitnet.
“On the production side, we want to make Vietnam more self-sufficient in potato production, by creating a sustainable potato sector that is able to compete with imports and is able to supply the domestic table potato market and potato processing industry with a consistent volume and quality offer.
“On the consumption side we aim to increase potato consumption, through increased awareness of the versatility and nutrition of table potato.”
As well as Fresh Studio, PepsiCo Food Vietnam, Agrico and Applied Plant Research-WUR, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands are funding and coordinating in the potato project.
“We can look back on a successful first potato season in which a strong basis for the next four years has been created, to vitalise the Vietnamese potato sector,” Rensen said.
Fresh Studio is also involved in two other horticultural projects in Vietnam, Rensen revealed: one developing vegetable production in Moc Chau, the northern highlands, and another in Dalat, central highlands, introducing greenhouse vegetable production.
