VnSAT Lam Dong province actively supports coffee farmers

In Lam Dong province, the VnSAT project organized a series of programs to support coffee farmers actively.

The VnSAT project is implemented in 8 districts and cities of Lam Dong province with a scale of 16,500 hectares of coffee. Photo: Minh Hau.

The VnSAT project is implemented in 8 districts and cities of Lam Dong province with a scale of 16,500 hectares of coffee and 15,000 participating farmers. According to the VnSAT Project Management Board of Lam Dong province ('VnSAT Lam Dong'), the province has established 41 farmer organizations, including 7 cooperatives and 34 cooperative groups for sustainable coffee production.

The total project implementation capital in Lam Dong province is about VND 211 billion. In which ODA capital is VND 132.9 billion, Vietnam's capital is VND 38.2 billion, and private capital is VND 39.9 billion.

Mr. Nguyen Van Chau, Deputy Director of Lam Dong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the VnSAT project had organized 359 FFS training classes for 12,728 farmers with a coffee area of ​​about 13,844 hectares, and executed 219 models with 174 hectares; trained on sustainable coffee replanting with 219 FFS classes for 8,359 farmers, with an area of ​​6,752 hectares, and executed 55 models with 40.3 hectares.

According to the VnSAT Lam Dong's Management Board, the number of beneficiaries from the project is about 56,392 people. The area of applying sustainable coffee farming methods reached 14,303 hectares, exceeding the target of 10,000 hectares. Compared to before participating in the project, farmers participating in the project increased profits by 20.73% compared to before participating in the project and increased by 21.28% compared to farmers outside the project.

Recently, the VNSAT project in Lam Dong province also organized capacity building training for farmers' organizations through 56 farmer group meetings with 2,289 participants; 12 training classes for heads of groups with 343 turns of people; 2 training courses on cooperative organization and management with 61 people; 2 training courses for cooperative's technicians for 68 people.

In particular, the VnSAT project has provided the necessary material support to farmer organizations. Specifically, VnSAT Lam Dong supported 5 farmer organizations to purchase 5 dryers, 17 pre-processing machines, of which 2 traditional dryers with a capacity of 3.5 - 4.5 tonnes per time and 3 blister dryers horizontal SRA capacity 12 tonnes per time. The total cost of this machinery and equipment is about VND 2.5 billion.

To support coffee farmers to adapt to climate change and prolonged drought, VnSAT Lam Dong has popularized economic irrigation techniques to producers. Simultaneously, VnSAT helped 7 households in the communes of Lam Ha and Di Linh districts to install water-saving irrigation systems with a total area of 10.4 hectares.

According to the VnSAT Lam Dong Project Management Board, the project has supported 10 farmer organizations to upgrade 22.26 kilometers of rural roads connecting to the coffee production area; Support 8 farmer organizations to build 8 warehouses with a total area of ​​1,392 m2, the full capacity of about 2,783 tonnes; support to build 6 coffee drying yards for 4 farmer organizations with a total area of ​​3,962 m2, with a drying capacity of 79,240 tonnes of fresh/drying. The total investment for these infrastructure support activities is about VND 49.5 billion.

VnSAT Lam Dong also supported the certification of 11 qualified nurseries participating in the project with a scale of 57,302 m2, with a production capacity of about 3.2 million plants per year. In addition, the project has conducted 1 class with 35 people on coffee breeding for staff and 6 classes with 175 people on coffee breeding for private nurseries, and 7 classes with 210 people on coffee nursery certification.

"Every year, we implement breeding quality monitoring, disease monitoring, and management activities at private nurseries. The results of this activity actively support the coffee varieties quality management in the project area", said Mr. Nguyen Van Chau, Deputy Director of Lam Dong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Recently, VnSAT Lam Dong has supported upgrading the nursery for the Lam Dong Agro-Forestry Experimental Research Center - under the WASI Institute with a scale of 4,000 m2, with a total investment of over VND 3 billion. Currently, the garden has been accepted, handed over, and put into use. The garden now has a production capacity of 200,000 plants per year.

The VnSAT project has the "Credit for coffee replanting" component, which has been implemented since 2016 until now, with an initial capital of US$ 50 million, equivalent to VND 1,100 billion for farmers of 5 Central Highlands provinces.

As a result, commercial banks such as Agribank, SHB, Sacombank, Techcombank... have disbursed 1,379 loans with VND 614 billion to support farmers to borrow money to replant about 3,285 hectares of coffee.

The loan norm is VND 270 million per hectare (replanting and new planting), VND 180 million per hectare (grafting and improving). If investing in an economical irrigation system, the maximum loan amount is VND 400 million per hectare. Long-term loan period up to 9 years. The loan interest rate is not more than 7% per year. Especially in 2016 and 2017, it is 6.5% per year.

Significantly, the one-time disbursement for a loan creates conditions for farmers to use capital flexibly, replant immediately, and replant on a scale of about 1 hectare/household instead of replanting a small area and applying sustainable replanting measures of the VnSAT Project.