Lam Dong: 3.8 billion VND in support for coffee replanting

Lam Dong (VNA) – The Central Highlands province of Lam Dong has allocated 3.8 billion VND (170,400 USD) to help local coffee farmers to replant 650 hectares of aging coffee trees, including 565 hectares of robusta coffee and 85 hectares of Arabica coffee.

Most of the support will be given to localities with large coffee cultivation like Di Linh, Bao Lam and Lam Ha districts. The money will be used to subsidise 60-80 percent of the prices of coffee seedlings.

The province is also holding training courses for farmers to improve production capacity, and facilitating their access to preferential loans to carry out the replantation programme.

Since 2013, some 25,000 hectares of coffee in the province have been replanted with the government-backed credit of 800 billion VND (36 million USD). The replanted area accounts for 60 percent of total coffee land in the Central Highlands region, which produces 92 percent of the country’s coffee output each year.

Annual average yield of replanted coffee areas ranges from 5-8 tonnes per hectare, doubling or even tripling productivity recorded in aging coffee crops.

The province is now home to 167 nurseries producing over 12 million qualified seedlings every year.-VNA