Drying coffee trees

Harvest failure of coffee trees along with continuous price drops have made many lives in Dak Nong difficult.

Due to hot weather in addition to draught, people in Dak Mil and Dak Song districts, Dak Nong Province in the central highland region of Vietnam, have spent a lot of time and effort trying to water their coffee fields this year.

Dinh Khac Tuong, 55, owns 5,000 trees and shared with DTiNews that, “My coffee trees are withered. The weather is so hot, I have to continually water them to try to keep them alive.”

Tuong added, “We spend 10-12 days at a time watering the coffee fields. I work days and nights at fields so I need to bring personal things with me and sleep there. Many families also bring food to cook there too.”

Nguyen Van Hoa, 35, told us sadly that his family, along with another two families, dug a pond and then used water from that pond to water the fields. Unfortunately, when his family wanted to water trees, the pond had already dried out. People here are forced to watch their water all night otherwise somebody might steal it.

Watering is the most important part of growing coffee trees. Without enough water the trees won't produce enough for the growers to sell.

Hoa added, “This year we water trees later than other years and we have less water than other years. Some families have fertiliser, some don’t. That’s why this harvest has failed.”

In addition, coffee growers have to cope with an increase in prices of petrol and fertiliser.

Many families do not have any patience when they realise their field's are dying and they simply abandon them. Many trees are chopped down in order to grow another kind of tree.

Some grow vegetables or raise fish and chickens instead of coffee hoping to make more money.

Caring for the trees takes tremendous effort

A leafless tree about to be chopped down