For three years, 300 coffee farmers in the Central Highlands of Vietnam have kept records of their daily coffee farming activities. The insights distilled from these data are presented in a new Farmer Field Book.
Findings include:
- Farmers’ environmental performance has improved, and the gender wage gap has been reduced;
- Labor use efficiency and optimization of investment has been able to somewhat offset the coffee price decline, but not completely: sadly, the share of farmers living in extreme poverty has increased;
- Nutrient efficiency has improved but can be further optimized to improve productivity and avoid soil nutrient depletion;
- The farmer’s education level, hours spent pruning coffee trees and potassium application correlate positively with yield rates.
Other topics in the report include the effect of agroforestry on productivity and the prevalence of the use of glyphosate.
This report was compiled by Agri-Logic for the ISLA landscape program in Vietnam, convened by IDH, and its partners Acom (part of Ecom group) and Olam Vietnam Ltd.
With co-funding from ISLA, JDE Coffee and Lavazza, these companies implement landscape level projects in parts of their respective coffee supply chains. One component in each of these projects is the implementation of the Farmer Field Book.
The Farmer Field Book provides:
- Detailed multi-crop performance data for the participating farmers and farmer groups;
- Improved insight to participating companies into the performance of their suppliers;
- Insight into the degree to which the ISLA program is meeting its objectives.