Young coffee farmers' battle against climate change

12-05-2022

By Dieu Tran Quang, business advisor Vietnam

With Rabo Foundation’s support, Youth Exchange visit happens to be the single most talked-about event in the Agriterra Vietnam’s journey of helping coffee cooperatives deal with climate issues back in April.

The event was organised for three coffee cooperatives: Tan Nong Nguyen, Minh Toan Loi and Ea Kiet in the Central Highlands region lasting between April 19th-22nd involving 20 coffee farmers (4 females, 16 males) including youths and the management accompanied by Agriterra business advisors and local climate expert.

The purpose of this exchange is to primarily give youths a chance to gain a deeper insight into techniques of implementing Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices that were recommended by Agriterra business advisors and local climate expert recently. Visited models include organic coffee cooperatives, multi-stem coffee farms, durian models, with all being said the well-performed climate smart coffee production across two nearby provinces Lam Dong and Dak Lak.

As a result, coffee farmers were brought together in the form of a farmer-to-farmer exchange to make full use of local knowledge on coffee production in a way to best adapt to climate impacts. Furthermore, participants had the opportunities to bring up questions with regards to caring for durian pressing on variety selection, pest management, etc...
At the same time, participants also were made clear about the converting techniques of single-into-multi stem coffee cultivating which is proven to produce higher productivity, mitigate aging while increasing resilience of coffee in the context of climate change. Especially, climate expert was involved as an integral part of the visit to bring expertise knowledge supporting the whole farmer exchange process while two Agriterra business advisors facilitated the event to advise on the mainstreaming of CSA into a sustainable coop business model.

Durian farm owner sharing his experience in durian cultivation

To help the farmers follow up on visit’s results, three complete SMART Action Plans, which include a specific stating of what will be doing, were developed. Given that, the first prioritised action will be an expert’s technical training on durian-coffee intercropping techniques scheduled this May.

Together with preparing farmers initial steps in climate-smart coffee production, this Agriterra Vietnam’s special event also made a great contribution to furthering and realising youth’s role as a forefront force in the fight against negative impacts Climate change has taken on their coffee.

Discussing on how multi-stem coffee is farmed