Coffee growers in the Central Highlands are replacing their old trees
with new plants in efforts to increase the yield and quality of coffee
beans.
As one of the world’s top coffee exporters,
Vietnam now has more than 525,000 hectares under coffee trees, 90
percent of which are in the Central Highlands. However, statistics by
the Vietnam Coffee-Cacao Association showed that in the next 3-5 years,
half of the coffee trees in the country will reach 20 years old, which
mean they are too old to bear profitable yields. In that context, the
Tay Nguyen Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute has been providing
farmers with young plants and seeds of new strains.
According to the institute’s director Le Ngoc Bau, scientists from the
institute have produced several varieties of Robusta coffee, which have
received permission from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development to be grown on large scale. The new varieties produce high
yield with bigger beans and are highly resistant to diseases.
Besides supplying between 500,000 to 1 million young plants and 20
tonnes of seeds, as well as more than 200,000 grafts each year to
replace old trees, the institute has also provided coffee farmers with
advanced cultivation techniques and taught them how to intercrop to
increase income.
Bau proposed that the Government,
ministries and sectors should increase investment in scientific and
technological research on the cultivation of coffee tree, taking into
account the plant’s important role in the national economy.
He said it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive research programme
on the coffee industry’s entire production process to help increase the
added value of this export staple and help the sector achieve
sustainable growth.
In the 2011-2012 crop, the country earned nearly 3.4 billion USD from exporting around 1.6 million tonnes of coffee bean.-VNA