VIETNAM’S SUGARCANE PRODUCTION

The 2003-2004 season 305.000 hectares were under sugarcane cultivation, with an average productivity of 47.5 tons cane per hectare.. The yield and quality of cane were still low, the rea

International Symposium, China, 2004

VIETNAM’S SUGARCANE PRODUCTION

Dr Nguyen Duc Quang, Mr Ha Dinh Tuan

Institute of Sugarcane Research, Phu An, Ben Cat district, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam

Mobile phone: (84) 913867107; Office: (84)650580552; Private: (84)650817203

FAX: (84)650562267; E-mail: nguyen_duc_quang@yahoo.com

Abtract

Vietnam’s sugarcane industry has been developing in recent years, with 44 sugar factories and capacity of processing about 90.000 tons per day The Vietnam Government is fostering a plan that would lead to sugar self-sufficiency and eventually a transmition to an exportable supply situation

Vietnam’s domestic sugar industry is based on the production of sugarcane, which is widely grown throughout the country, especially in the South The area planted to sugarcane has been gradually expanding in recent years According to Government statistics, sugarcane averaged 150.000 hectares in early 1990’s; reached 165.000 hectares in the 1994-1995 season; by 1998-1999 season 250.000 hectares were covered by this crop The 2003-2004 season 305.000 hectares were under sugarcane cultivation, with an average productivity of 47.5 tons cane per hectare About 80% of this is concentrated in the South of Vietnam The yield and quality of cane were still low, the reasons are damage of bores and unsuitable technices, it needs advantage in the future

Introduction

In Vietnam cane is generally grown on ramified condition in 1993 there were 143.200 hectares of sugarcane in 39 of 53 provinces These areas have been increasing to 305.000 hectares in 45 of 61 provinces in 2004 In the Mekong Delta region the leading producing provinces have been Long An, Tay Ninh, Ben Tre and Hau Giang In the Central Coast the leading provinces have been Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh and the largest concentrations of sugarcane are currently in Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Hoa Binh provinces Cane yield in Vietnam have been averaging between 45 – 50 tons per hectare with a 10.5 – 11.0% CCS and a high fiber content of 12 – 135 The goal of the Government is to lif yields to the more than 70 tons per hectare level and increase the cane quality

Production of cane averaged between 6.1 and 11.4 million tons in the mid 1990’s and reached 14.5 million in the 2003-2004 season Although the expansion of sugarcane area in recent years indicates that the cane has become more profitable in the Agri-system, but the profit from sugarcane production still is low The Vietnam Government’s goal is to reduce the area under sugarcane cultivation to less than 25,000 hectares and raise the yield to more than

70 tons per hectares The areas under sugarcane cultivation in Vietnam were divided in to 5 zones including as follow:

- The highland of the Northeast: The areas under sugarcane production are low and unconcentrate, because of high slope The winter season is dry and cold conducting to low cane yield, but high cane quality

- The Red river Delta: The land is fertile and the area of sugarcane under cultivated is unconcentrate The cane yield is high, but the cane quality is normal

- The Central Coast: The quality of land and rainfall are low, but sunshine levels is higher The Agri-climate conducting to low cane yield and high cane quality

hectares, the average cane yield ranges from 55 to 65 tons per hectares

- The South (Mekong River Delta): With more than 100,000 hectares under sugarcane production, the Mekong River Delta is one of the largest sugarcane regions of all The cane yield

is highest (about 100-130 tons per hectares), but the cane quality is lowest

Consumtion

Vietnam’s average sugarcane consumption per capita is estimated at between 8 and 10 kilograms This compares with the world average of 20 kilogram and in the countries of European with annual consumption per capita is 26 kilograms The Government has decided

to reduce the value-added tax rate on sugar and by-products, in order to reduce the price of sugar, to make the sugar price in Vietnam enough power to competition with outside

Sugar proccessing

There are 44 sugar factories in Vietnam, with capacity processing about 90,000 tons per day The biggest capacity processing is 8,000 tons per day and in that 500 tons cane per day is lowest once Because of out of order, two of them were improceess in the current Most sugar factories in the North and the Centre have settled up in sugarcane areas, and sugarcane has been cultivated by good cares of Farmers Although drought is conduct to low cane yield, but high quality is led to rise of gross sugar yields In the South, most factories haven’t settled

up in sugarcane areas, because of high competitive sugarcane with other valid crops like rice, fruit-trees, rubber, etc

In 2003-2004 season, 42/44 factories have been working with 82,350 tons of cane per day and total 10.6 million tons of material cane were processed The factories processing were achieved of 85% original capacity (in the 2002-2003 season is 93%) Although yielding sugarcane is low in this season, but higher quality than 2002-2003 season led to higher gross sugar yields The sugar production is achieved 1,069,527 tons, including 300,000 tons of RE and other sugars 769,527 tons, increasing 1.0% comparison with 2002-2003 season With 150,000 tons manufactured by small semi-manual factories, so that the gross sugar yields in 2003-2004 season is 1,217,177 tons

Sub-products from cane

In Vietnam 34/42 factories could be produce fertilizer from bagasse, with amount of 200,000 tons per year, of that it only provide 50% of the field’s demand Every year about 1.6 million litters of alcohol were distilled by molasses from sugar processing too and up to now

Cane material production

In 2003-2004 season, total sugarcane areas are 305,000 ha, with 258,000 ha of dense areas, cane yield achieved 47.5 tons per ha with 10.9% of average CCS In the instance of the Vietnam sugarcanes records have been kept a very old-cultural history Sugarcane has been growing all of different regions and Farmers accept science progress of Agro-technologies as easy

Vietnam has more than 800 clones and varieties, many have good characters were crossed by ISCR such as drought resistance, pests resistance and high quality, etc These are important materials for crossing in the future, which going to supply suitable varieties in different regions of cultural sugar industry

Reasons led to low yield and quality of cane

There are not enough resistant varieties to drought, flood and salty, etc for each

suitable area At present, most exotic varieties occupied high ratio of the acreage like F156,

My55-14, VN84-4137, VN84-422, VN85-1859, ROC1, ROC10, RO16, etc Commercial

varieties haven’t shown good tonnage, viguor and quality characters Shortage of varieties

have resistance to diseases (smut, with leaf, yellow leaf syndrome, etc.) and bores (Sesamia

sp., Phragmatoecia castaneae Hubner, Scirpophaga nivella Fabr.,Chilo sacchariphagus Bojer,

etc.) Meanwhile, the problems of bores are very importance; it is main reason for drop

sugarcane yields Many regions are scattered with small areas under sugarcane production;

those are difficult to work by cultural machine Especially, sloping hill (in the North and

Centre) and low land (Mekong delta) Many factories are getting shortage of raw material for

working at full capacity The high land regions are depending on rainfall for growth sugarcane

and low land regions are usually flooded by water In contrast, there are not many of good

irrigation or good hydraulic systems as necessaries Especially in the Eastern South zone,

bores dropped yielding cane in many recent years The competitive culture between sugarcane

and many valid crops are always violence

The sugar cane bores in Vietnam

There are 8 species of sugarcane bores in Vietnam (Table 1.), the cane could be

damaged in all state of growing The cane yield could be lost by them average of 20-40% per

year Three of them were vary dangerous to cane from planting to harvesting as Phragmataecia

castaneae Hubner, Sesamia sp and Chilo sacchariphagus Bojer, with frequency of them in the

field are 35.23; 33.54 and 22.44% to respond to each other

Table 1 Major species of sugarcane bores in Vietnam

Name Family

Phragmataecia castaneae Hubner Cossidae

Sesamia sp Noctuidae Sesamia inferens Walker Noctuidae

Chilo sacchariphagus Bojer Pyralidae

Eucosma schistaceana Snellen Eucosmidae

Scirpophaga nivella Fabricius Pyralidae

Chilo infuscatellus Snellen Pyralidae

The ratio of damaged cane in the field caused by three bores were 35.38, 22.33 and

32.89% in order The cause of them is not low yield cane and bad quality

Table 2 Density of species and their damage on the cane field in

the Eastern South zone (8/1999 - 8/2001)

Density of species Species

Damaged cane by bores (%)

Phragmataecia castaneae Hubner 1,615 35.23 35.38

Table 3 Natural enemies of sugarcane bore in the Eastern South

and near zones (1/2000 - 12/2002)

A- Parasitic insect/bore phase

1 Trichogramma chilonis

Ishii/egg

Trichogrammatidae

- Hymenoptera

Eucosma schistaceana Chilo auricilius & C

infuscatellus Scirpophaga nivella Eucosma schistaceana

+++ +

-

-

2 Trichogramma japonicum

Asmead/egg

Trichogrammatidae

- Hymenoptera

Scirpophaga nivella Chilo auricilius Sesamia sp

+

-

-

3 Trichogramma ostriniae

Pang & Chen/egg

Trichogrammatidae

- Hymenoptera

Eucosma schistaceana -

4 Trichogrammatoidea nana

Zehntner/egg

Trichogrammatidae

- Hymenoptera

Chilo auricilius Phragmataecia castaneae

-

-

5 Telenomus rowani

Gahan/egg

Scelionidae

- Hymenoptera

Scirpophaga nivella +

6 Telenomus beneficiens

Zehntner /egg

Scelionidae

- Hymenoptera

Eucosma schistaceana +++

7 Telenomus daobochongus

8 Telenomus sp./egg Scelionidae

9 Cotesia flavipes

Cameron/larva

Braconidae

- Hymenoptera

Eucosma schistaceana Chilo auricilius & C

infuscatellus Sesamia sp

Phragmataecia castaneae Eucosma schistaceana

+++ +

-

-

-

10 Microbracon chinensis

Szepligeti /larva Braconidae - Hymenoptera Eucosma schistaceana Chilo auricilius & C

infuscatellus

-

-

11 Stenobracon nicevillei

12 Rhaconotus rosliensis

13 Elasmus zehntneri

Ferriere/larva

Elasmidae

- Hymenoptera

Scirpophaga nivella +

14 Melaboris sinicus

Holmgren/larva

Ichneumonidae

- Hymenoptera

Eucosma schistaceana Chilo auricilius & C

infuscatellus Sesamia sp

-

-

-

15 Isotima javensis

16 Enicospilus sp./larva Ichneumonidae

- Hymenoptera

17 Goryphus sp./larva Ichneumonidae

- Hymenoptera

Scirpophaga nivella -

18 Xanthopimpla stemmator

Thunberg/pupa

Ichneumonidae

- Hymenoptera

Eucosma schistaceana Sesamia sp

Phragmataecia castaneae

-

-

-

19 Tetrastichus howardi

Olliff/pupa

Eulophidae

- Hymenoptera

Eucosma schistaceana Scirpophaga nivella Sesamia sp

- ++

-

- Hymenoptera

21 Sturmiopsis inferens

Townsend/pupa

Tachinidae

- Diptera

Chilo auricilius & C

infuscatellus Phragmataecia castaneae Sesamia sp

-

-

- B- Prey insect/ bore phase

22 Euborellia annulipes Lucas Carcinophoridae

- Dermaptera Eucosma schistaceana Chilo auricilius & C

infuscatellus Phragmataecia castaneae Sesamia sp

++ + + +++

23 Euborellia annulata

- Dermaptera

Eucosma schistaceana Sesamia sp

-

-

25 Rhinocoris marginellus

Thunberg

Reduviidae

- Hemiptera

Eucosma schistaceana Chilo auricilius & C

infuscatellus

-

-

27 Chlaenius posticalis

Motschulky

Carabidae

- Coleoptera

Eucosma schistaceana Sesamia sp

Phragmataecia castaneae

- +

-

29 Cicindela sexpunctata

Fabricius

Cicindelidae

- Coleoptera

Sesamia sp

Chilo auricilius & C

infuscatellus

-

-

30 Cicindela striolata Illiger Cicindelidae

31 Paederus fuscipes Curtis Staphilinidae

- Coleoptera

Eucosma schistaceana Chilo auricilius & C

infuscatellus Sesamia sp

+

-

-

32 Brumus saturalis Fabricius Coccinellidae

- Coleoptera

Scirpophaga nivella +

- Hymenoptera Chilo auricilius & C

infuscatellus

-

35 Monomonium sp Formicidae

- Hymenoptera

Eucosma schistaceana Chilo auricilius & C

infuscatellus

-

-

- Hymenoptera

Eucosma schistaceana Eucosma schistaceana Sesamia sp

+

-

-

37 Metarhizium anisopliae (Metsch.) Sorokin/larva,

pupa

42 Solenopsis sp Formicidae

- Hymenoptera

Eucosma schistaceana Eucosma schistaceana

-

- Note: +++: Many appearance (>50%)

++ : Moderate appearance (26 - 50%) + : Little appearance (6 - 25%)

- : Rare appearance (0 - 5%)

Sugarcane bores controls in Vietnam

In the Vietnam sugarcane bores were managed by methods as follow:

* Planting time:

Cane was planted at Spring-Winter time (Oct.-Nov.) to avoid damage by Sesamia sp

and Chilo sacchariphagus Bojer species

* Cultural methods:

Inter-row spacing at 1.0m is higher vigorous of cane growing, higher cane population,

longer internode and low damage of bores than 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4m spacing

Early applying fertilizer and balance of NPK dose have reduced damage of cane bores

in all season

Trash mulching have level of damage caused by bores is low comparison with trash

burning, specially Chilo auricilius and C infuscatellus are reduced considerable population

in drought season

* Bio-controls:

The release of 37,000 to 50,000 Trichogramma chilonis Ishii per hectare per month

(from April to December) on common varieties Which have been reduced of 6.6% damage

percentage by Eucosma schistaceana; 40.2% by Chilo auricilius and Chilo infuscatellus So

Chilo auricilius and Chilo infuscatellus from 268.3 dropped to 141.2 larvaes/100m2

* Varieties:

In the North, some resistant varieties like group ROC (but ROC10), VD, CP34-79,

NH56-12, QD11, F156 In the South and Central Coast, some promising varieties are high

resistance such as K84-200, ROC16, VN84-4137; moderate resistance such as VN84-422,

VN85-1859

* Chemical methods:

Apply Kyazinon 10G just after planting were reduced from 23.3-78.7% damaged plants at tilering stage; and 16.1-32.6% damaged plants at elongate growth, which are caused

by cane bores

Apply Basudin 10G or Furadan 10G with the dose of 20-30 kilograms per hectare just after planting about 20% of cane yield was increesed

Combine of spraying Basudin 500EC or Azodrine 500EC two times at April and June with cut damaged cane and strew partial grain of Basudin are reduced loosing of cane yield by bores

REFERENCE

1 Ministry of Agriculture and rural development of Vietnam (2000), Result of 5 years carried

out the sugarcane program Hà nội, Vietnam

2 Ministry of agriculture and rural development of Vietnam, 2002 Report of closing

sugarcane in 2001-2002 season Vietnam’s sugarcane industry conference 8/2002

3 Diep, Do Ngoc 2002 Research for bores in sugarcane and bores control in South-Eastern

(Thesis of PhD.) Hanoi University Agriculture No 1, Hanoi, Vietnam

4 Quang, Nguyen Duc 2004 Research for Sesamia sp on sugarcane in the South-eastern and thier coltrol method (Thesis of PhD), Vietnam Agricultre Science Institute, Hanoi

Vietnam

5 Ben Cat Institute of Sugarcane Reseach (1999), The results science reseach 1995-1999 (tài liệu

lưu hành nội bộ)

6 A Agarwal, R A and Z.A Siddiqi (1964), “Sugarcane pests”, In Entomology in India, Ent

Soc., India, New Delhi, pp 149 - 186

7 David H and K Ananthanarayana (1991), “An ecological perspective of the natural enemies

in the sugarcane eco-system” Biocontrol technology for sugarcane pest management (David, H

and S Easwaramoothy), Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, pp 11 - 50

8 Gupta, B D (1958), “Some friends of the sugarcane farmer, Pt 1 Parasites of the top borer

Scirpophaga nivella Fabricius”, Indian Sub., 8, pp 439 - 444

9 Gupta, B D (1959), “Insect pests of sugarcane in India”, III The top borer, Indian Sug.,

9, pp 127 - 149