Mr. Mai Dinh Phuong (in An Phu village, Ea Drong commune, Cu Mgar district, Dak Lak province) has been planting and taking care of coffee for nearly 30 years. In recent years, due to low prices, while the coffee garden is getting old, reducing productivity, he chose to graft a part of the coffee area, and intercrop with many kinds of fruit trees. According to Mr. Mai Dinh Phuong, intercropping has helped increase income from many crops, but coffee yield is stable 2.5-3 tons / hectare.
“Since intercropping durian, pepper, and avocado, the efficiency has been higher. Due to planting a little bit of everything, the efficiency is higher, but the efficiency of coffee monoculture is low, so it must be intercropped ”, Mr. Mai Dinh Phuong shared.
Mr. Mai Dinh Phuong earns hundreds of millions of VND from intercropping fruit trees in coffee gardens
Intercropping fruit trees into the coffee garden is also the way that Duong Van Thao’s family, in E Cham village, Buon Tram town, Krong Ana district overcame difficulties when coffee prices fell low. Although the main crop income of coffee declined, but intercropped crops such as durian, avocado were harvested and sold at a good price, so his family’s total income remained stable at 300-400 million each. year.
“In recent years, the price of coffee and pepper in the Central Highlands has been low. I have 4 hectares of coffee, so I also convert some, plant more fruit trees and pepper to have a stable income without losing productivity in the garden, for example, losing income in coffee trees will increase income. imported in fruit trees ”, Mr. Duong Van Thao said.
Intercropping fruit trees in coffee gardens is a solution chosen by many farmers in Dak Lak recently. The main types of intercropping are durian, avocado, pepper, macadamia and black cassava (a type of timber tree of group 1, planted as pepper pillars, can be harvested later). Not only improving income, but intercropped crops have high canopy, so they also help shade and block the wind for coffee gardens. This is a technical solution that brings both economic efficiency and environmental efficiency.
 Multi-cultivation of crops in coffee gardens is a technical solution chosen by many farmers in the Central Highlands to adapt to climate change. |
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dak Lak province, up to now, there are about 1/5 of the total area of more than 200,000 hectares of coffee in the province are intercropped with many other trees. Intercropping areas concentrated in coffee growing areas of Cu Mgar district, Krong Pak district, Buon Ho town and Buon Ma Thuot city.
Dr. Pham Cong Tri, from the Central Highlands Agro-Forestry Science and Technology Institute, said that, not only in Dak Lak, multi-cultivation of crops in coffee gardens is a trend that many farmers in the Central Highlands choose to focus on. climate change adaptation. In the past 5 years, the Central Highlands region has appeared more and more large-sized agroforestry landscape clusters with an area of several thousand hectares.
“Through this program, if farmers do well, we will form sustainable multi-cultivation areas; all products are commercialized towards either GAP or organic products. As such, the benefits are much greater. We are creating agricultural systems that are very closely related to the forest farming system. They are trees, coffee trees, carpet; There are many inputs and outputs in a balanced way, not monotonous, we intercrop wooden trees into the coffee garden ”, said Dr. Pham Cong Tri.
Over the past years, climate change is adversely affecting agricultural production, affecting the livelihoods of many coffee growers in the Central Highlands. The diversification of crops in the coffee garden is considered one of the solutions bringing many effective both economic and environmental, towards sustainable agricultural production that is climate change.
