VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will establish a board in charge of replanting coffee trees to help Central Highlands provinces have high-quality coffee and increase the survival rate of replanted trees.

According to Le Quoc Doanh, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, the establishment of such a board originates from the low results of coffee replanting over the past few years and the low survival rate of trees planted on the areas of old trees.

Therefore, the board will be set up with an aim to find coffee products which have high quality and productivity as well as an appropriate planting method.

According to the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technical Institute, around 88% of the coffee areas replanted by farmers die due to nematode infections.

The latest statistics of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association indicate that there are currently over 200,000 hectares of coffee, equivalent to 30% of the total coffee areas, with trees aged between 20 and 25 years. The average yield of such coffee trees is 1.5 tons per hectare, one ton lower than the average productivity.

Coffee is a perennial plant and the board’s duty is to not only increase the survival rate but also select high-quality varieties, said Doanh.

According to the institute, the cost needed to replant a hectare of coffee ranges between VND100 million and VND120 million. Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) has agreed on a credit package for farmers and enterprises.

Agribank has pledged VND12.9 trillion to help enterprises and farmers to plant, take care of, replant, purchase, process and export coffee. The loan terms will be 7-10 years with an interest rate which is 2 percentage points lower than the normal rate plus a grace period of three years.

Vicofa has also provided free coffee trees for farmers in the past year.

Source: SGT