Connecting sesame seeds, a sustainable direction in the future

Advantage plants

On October 9, implementing a cooperation agreement with the Korea Institute of Rural Economics (KREI), the National Agricultural Extension Center cooperated with the Nghe An Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to organize the seminar "Vietnam sustainable sesame production. South Korea".

The seminar aims to share and discuss research results on production, processing and trade conducted jointly by Korean and Vietnamese experts, and at the same time propose to develop production support projects. sustainable sesame in Nghe An.

Mr. Le Quoc Thanh emphasized that in the coming time, the National Agricultural Extension Center will exchange and coordinate closely with Korean experts and research groups to build a complete framework. This is not only an ordinary ODA project, but it shows the vision for the chain of goods, thereby affirming the value of cooperation between Vietnam - Korea.

Regarding the status of sesame production in Vietnam, the Department of Crop Production identified sesame as an industrial plant, a short-term food plant with high nutritional value.

Sesame seeds have a high oil and protein content, so they are used a lot for food processing. In particular, sesame has many advantages over other crops thanks to its easy to cultivate properties, short growth time (about 70 - 80 days), good development in hot and dry conditions, and effective sowing. The land is exhausted, lack of water, and requires little intensive farming.

From the above factors, the agricultural sector has identified sesame as one of the important crops in the current crop restructuring plan in Vietnam, especially in the context of severe climate change causing drought. drought increasingly fierce.

Through surveys in Vietnam, thanks to its wide adaptability, easy planting, low investment cost, and suitable with the economic capacity of farmers, sesame is grown in most ecological regions. However, from 2015 onwards, the national sesame area tended to decrease sharply, from 54.84 thousand hectares to 31.18 thousand hectares (2019), the average yield was quite low, about 0.8 tons / year. ha.

The reason for the reduction is that people still consider sesame as a sub-crop so they have not really paid attention. Limitations from research, breeding and farming techniques also contribute significantly. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the impact of weather factors, prolonged drought, and erratic floods that actually cause certain difficulties for farmers.

Meet the needs 

Compared to developed countries, Vietnam has a very low vegetable oil consumption, just over 7 kg / person / year, while the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WTO) is 13.5 kg / person / year.