Management System of Cassava Production for Ethanol Industry

Abstract

Management system of cassava production in the areas Khon Kaen ethanol plant is facing a problem of raw materials supplied are unstable with under or over the demand. In addition, harvesting dates of the farmers do not compatible with the factory demand. For the farmers, unsuitable land, root rot of cassava, soil degradation and insufficient rain fall or long dry spell are found. Consequently, low root yield and high production cost of cassava occur. To solve these problems, capacity, demand and management system of raw materials, cassava root, of the factory were investigated. Then study on the potential of cassava production on areas around the ethanol plant was carried out to provide data and a map of the potential root yield in the buffer area of 50 km around the factory. The data and the map were used to select suitable planting areas near the ethanol plant for cassava production, especially during inadequate raw material supplying period. The suitable planting areas with the technology developed from this research were arranged which were, depending on the potential of areas, cultural practices of farmer and limitation of each planting area to increase root yield or decrease production cost of cassava. Formation of contract farming groups to produce and harvest cassava on different periods, corresponded to the inadequate raw material supplying period. The results of this study could make, a pilot model of cassava production system for adequate raw material supplying to the ethanol manufacture was developed.