Coffee needed to replant in Tay Nguyen region, Vietnam

The Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) region needs to replant 100,000ha of coffee in the 2011-15 period, or about 20 per cent of the region's total coffee area, according to the Tay Nguyen Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute.

Most of the 100,000ha of coffee are 17-25 years old and have an annual average yield of 1.2 tonnes per ha, or only 50 per cent of the country's average yield.

Le Ngoc Bau, head of the institute, said the average cost to replant one hectare of coffee was VND100-120 million (US$4,700-5,700).

The replanting was a small issue to large companies, but it was a big issue to farmers as more than 91 per cent of farmers lack capital, Bau told Vietnam Economic Times.

The work needed the support of replanting costs from the Government and especially from coffee processing and exporting companies in the first two years of replanting because the income of most farmers relied on coffee harvests, he said.

If farmers were not given financial support for replanting, they might switch to growing other short-term crops such as corn and cassava because it would take three years for new coffee trees to bear fruit, he said.

To solve difficulties for farmers, professor Nguyen Lan Hung, director of Experimental Biology Centre under the Ha Noi National University of Education and General Secretary of Viet Nam Association of Biological Branches, has proposed two solutions.

First, for coffee orchards that can be harvested and kept for a few years, farmers should intercrop other trees like macadamia and avocado in the coffee orchards.

When macadamia and avocado trees begin to have fruit after three years, farmers can cut down old coffee trees and replant new coffee trees.

Second, for coffee orchards that are too old and badly damaged by disease, farmers need to cut down coffee trees and grow short-term crops for at least two years.

Cotton trees were the most suitable for growing in these coffee orchards because they took only four months for a harvest and offer high income for farmers while they waited to replant new coffee trees, Hung said.

Pham Van An, director of the Lam Dong Province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said his province had 40,000ha of old and low-yield coffee.

The province also had 15,000ha of coffee aged below 20 years, but they showed signs of being old and low yield.

The areas are needed to be switched to other crops or replanted with new high-yield coffee trees, An said.

Under the province's plan, Lam Dong will keep its coffee area at 135,000ha by 2020, a reduction of nearly 8,000ha compared to the present.

The province will also focus on replacing new high-yield coffee strains.

The Viet Nam National Coffee Corporation (Vinacafe), which grows coffee in Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Gia Lai, Kon Tum and Quang Tri provinces, plans to replant 20,000ha of its coffee trees.

Vinacafe is estimated to invest about VND950 billion ($45.2 million) by 2012 to implement measures for the sustainable development of coffee trees.