In Central Highland Dak Lak province, a certain crop is having a bigimpact on the lives of local ethnic communities - it is cocoa.
Although cocoa is still only one of the seven top agricultural plantsin the region, the newly imported plant has spread far and wide in aplace where cashew nuts and coffee were previously seen as the mainstayof the province's agricultural industry.
Withsurging demand from Asia and shrinking production in West Africa, aglobal shortfall in cocoa output of around 160,000 tonnes in 2013 andabout 1 million tonnes will occur by 2020, according to Dinh Hai Lam,cocoa development manager at MARS Incorporated.
Withmultinational companies the likes of Cargill and Mars wanting to grabtheir slice of Vietnam's emerging cocoa industry, despite it yieldingonly 6,700 tonnes of beans per year, an opportunity has emerged for DakLak farmers to cash in on this market driven frenzy and dramatically toimprove their standard of living.
For Hbim Kbrong, aM'Nong woman in Yang Tao Commune's Phok Village, her new cocoa cropshave transformed her livelihood after she decided to replace herfamily's poor-yielding coffee crops with cocoa in 2007.
In the sand-laden area of Yang Tao commune in LaK District, localsused to depend on short-term plants like corns or cassava to supplementpoor returns from coffee. However, all this has changed since cocoa wasintroduced through the Sustainable Cocoa Enterprise Solutions forSmallholders (SUCCESS) Alliance programme in Vietnam.
The programme, a public-private partnership driven by USAID, USDA, theWorld Cocoa Foundation, Mars Inc. and ACDI/VOCA, provided Hbim's familyand nearly 40 others between 150 and 200 young cocoa plants each,fertiliser and technical training on how to grow cocoa plants.
After just three years, her cocoa garden was providing 400 kilos ofdried-cocoa beans. She sold the beans and received more than 22.4million VND (approximately 1,060 USD) for her efforts.
"That was the most money I'd ever had at that moment," said Hbim.
Her life has improved in leaps and bounds from that moment thanks to aregular source of income from cocoa. She says that her family used to‘live in misery' when they had to collect firewood and bamboo shootsfrom the forest and trade them for rice in the dry season.
"The cocoa usually provides beans for 9-10 months a year. Now, I have aregular source of income to buy food, clothes, meat and fish for myfamily. My son can go to school and I have time to participate incommunity social activities such as the commune's women's and farmer'sunions."
Hbim said she received more than 70million VND (3,300 USD) from her 400 cocoa plants in 2012 and herfamily's income will double in coming years when all 900 cocoa plantsstart producing beans.
She has managed to save 125million VND (6,000 USD) to build a house, pay for her daughter's weddingand buy more land for her cocoa garden.
Hbim's family is one of 80 households (approx. half of the commune) who have escaped poverty thanks to cocoa farming.
But she hasn't stopped there. She is also now leader of the commune'scocoa growing club, organising monthly meetings to discuss cocoa growingtechniques and share valuable knowledge.
In Lakdistrict, there are now 262 hectares of cocoa land belonging to 45 cocoaclubs with more than 2,100 participating farmers.
The impetus to raise incomes has also led to innovations in growinghybrid crops, with farmers in neighbouring Eakar district planting cocoatrees alongside cashew nuts.
The model has showedremarkable results with 200 members now growing 350ha of cocoa andcashew nuts in hamlet 12 alone. In 2013, the district harvested 80tonnes of dried cocoa beans.
"No other plants besidecocoa would be planted in cashew nut gardens. Cocoa plants have doubledmy income to 60 million VND (2,900 USD) per hectare," said co-operativechairman Thai Xuan Quang.
"Coffee is still thenumber one plant in Dak Lak. However, cocoa has showed it's a strongcompetitor when it is grown alongside other plants or in small plots,"said the province's agriculture and rural development deputy directorHuynh Quoc Thich.
Thich highlights an importantpoint that Dak Lak still faces difficulties developing cocoa farming dueto a shortage of land, capital and technical support for farmers withno experience growing the plant.
In spite of this,there are positive signs this plant will continue to make its mark onDak Lak. The province currently has 2,500ha of cocoa and there is even amaster plan for 6,000ha of cocoa farming to be implemented by 2015.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's CultivationDepartment has also recently said cocoa farming has increased from9,000ha in 2007 to more than 22,000ha across the country, with growthmainly concentrated in the Central Highlands, south-eastern and MekongDelta provinces.
"It presents a great opportunityfor Vietnam to become one of the world's major cocoa suppliers. Thereare opportunities here for all cocoa growers," said Lam.-VNA
Although cocoa is still only one of the seven top agricultural plantsin the region, the newly imported plant has spread far and wide in aplace where cashew nuts and coffee were previously seen as the mainstayof the province's agricultural industry.
Withsurging demand from Asia and shrinking production in West Africa, aglobal shortfall in cocoa output of around 160,000 tonnes in 2013 andabout 1 million tonnes will occur by 2020, according to Dinh Hai Lam,cocoa development manager at MARS Incorporated.
Withmultinational companies the likes of Cargill and Mars wanting to grabtheir slice of Vietnam's emerging cocoa industry, despite it yieldingonly 6,700 tonnes of beans per year, an opportunity has emerged for DakLak farmers to cash in on this market driven frenzy and dramatically toimprove their standard of living.
For Hbim Kbrong, aM'Nong woman in Yang Tao Commune's Phok Village, her new cocoa cropshave transformed her livelihood after she decided to replace herfamily's poor-yielding coffee crops with cocoa in 2007.
In the sand-laden area of Yang Tao commune in LaK District, localsused to depend on short-term plants like corns or cassava to supplementpoor returns from coffee. However, all this has changed since cocoa wasintroduced through the Sustainable Cocoa Enterprise Solutions forSmallholders (SUCCESS) Alliance programme in Vietnam.
The programme, a public-private partnership driven by USAID, USDA, theWorld Cocoa Foundation, Mars Inc. and ACDI/VOCA, provided Hbim's familyand nearly 40 others between 150 and 200 young cocoa plants each,fertiliser and technical training on how to grow cocoa plants.
After just three years, her cocoa garden was providing 400 kilos ofdried-cocoa beans. She sold the beans and received more than 22.4million VND (approximately 1,060 USD) for her efforts.
"That was the most money I'd ever had at that moment," said Hbim.
Her life has improved in leaps and bounds from that moment thanks to aregular source of income from cocoa. She says that her family used to‘live in misery' when they had to collect firewood and bamboo shootsfrom the forest and trade them for rice in the dry season.
"The cocoa usually provides beans for 9-10 months a year. Now, I have aregular source of income to buy food, clothes, meat and fish for myfamily. My son can go to school and I have time to participate incommunity social activities such as the commune's women's and farmer'sunions."
Hbim said she received more than 70million VND (3,300 USD) from her 400 cocoa plants in 2012 and herfamily's income will double in coming years when all 900 cocoa plantsstart producing beans.
She has managed to save 125million VND (6,000 USD) to build a house, pay for her daughter's weddingand buy more land for her cocoa garden.
Hbim's family is one of 80 households (approx. half of the commune) who have escaped poverty thanks to cocoa farming.
But she hasn't stopped there. She is also now leader of the commune'scocoa growing club, organising monthly meetings to discuss cocoa growingtechniques and share valuable knowledge.
In Lakdistrict, there are now 262 hectares of cocoa land belonging to 45 cocoaclubs with more than 2,100 participating farmers.
The impetus to raise incomes has also led to innovations in growinghybrid crops, with farmers in neighbouring Eakar district planting cocoatrees alongside cashew nuts.
The model has showedremarkable results with 200 members now growing 350ha of cocoa andcashew nuts in hamlet 12 alone. In 2013, the district harvested 80tonnes of dried cocoa beans.
"No other plants besidecocoa would be planted in cashew nut gardens. Cocoa plants have doubledmy income to 60 million VND (2,900 USD) per hectare," said co-operativechairman Thai Xuan Quang.
"Coffee is still thenumber one plant in Dak Lak. However, cocoa has showed it's a strongcompetitor when it is grown alongside other plants or in small plots,"said the province's agriculture and rural development deputy directorHuynh Quoc Thich.
Thich highlights an importantpoint that Dak Lak still faces difficulties developing cocoa farming dueto a shortage of land, capital and technical support for farmers withno experience growing the plant.
In spite of this,there are positive signs this plant will continue to make its mark onDak Lak. The province currently has 2,500ha of cocoa and there is even amaster plan for 6,000ha of cocoa farming to be implemented by 2015.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's CultivationDepartment has also recently said cocoa farming has increased from9,000ha in 2007 to more than 22,000ha across the country, with growthmainly concentrated in the Central Highlands, south-eastern and MekongDelta provinces.
"It presents a great opportunityfor Vietnam to become one of the world's major cocoa suppliers. Thereare opportunities here for all cocoa growers," said Lam.-VNA
