Cassava is among major economic crops of Thailand. The country is the world’s largest cassava product exporter, dominating 68% of the global market. BIOTEC-NSTDA has long been developing technologies, from upstream to downstream, to support cassava production and processing sector with a number of technologies and innovations already transferred to users and some are available in the market. Realizing that the Mekong region – consisting of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam - is in fact the main supplier of cassava to the world, with the combined market share as high as 90%, BIOTEC-NSTDA therefore initiated a project “Capacity Building on Circular Economy, Resource and Energy Efficiency for Productivity and Sustainability of Cassava Chain to High Value Products: Cassava Root, Native Starch, and Biogas in Mekong Countries” or CCC.
CCC aims at enhancing the competitiveness of cassava industry of the Mekong region by developing capacity of players throughout the cassava production value chain – from cassava farmers to manufacturers. CCC’s training program involves technologies in the upstream (cassava cultivars and crop management to achieve cassava properties as demanded by the cassava processing industry), midstream (resource and energy efficient processing technologies for cassava starch production) and downstream (biogas production from waste streams). The project expects to train 100 personnel, representing both the public and private sectors in the Mekong region.
This project is a collaboration between BIOTEC and Thai partners which include King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi and the Thai Tapioca Development Institute. It is generously supported by the Mekong-Republic of Korea Cooperation Fund.
