MILAN – Speaking on the sidelines af a recent seminar on coffee replanting in the Central Highlands province, Nguyen Viet Vinh, general secretary of the Vietnam Coffee-Cocoa Association (Vicofa), said that Vietnam currently had some 140,000 hectares of coffee which needed to be replanted.
The ministry targets to replant 25,000 hectares each year, he added.
Coffee replanting has has made little progress as scientists have failed to reach technical solutions which can help farmers replant their coffee.
In fact, according to the Western Highlands Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute, about 88% of replanted areas have died after one or two years due to nematode infections.
Therefore, a firm producing plant protection drugs and the institute have studied a drug which can kill nematodes.
However, the cost needed to replant a hectare of coffee ranges from VND100 million to VND120 million. As a result, only coffee enterprises and farmers with strong financial resources can do the replanting.
Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has agreed to lend to farmers and enterprises to replant coffee, replanted areas have remained small due primarily to the absence of a detailed plan.
Source: The Saigon Times Daily
