According to Nguyễn Đức Luyện, Director of the Đắk Nông Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, hundreds of thousands of hectares of coffee in Vietnam’s Central Highlands are now relying solely on rainfall to relieve drought. Groundwater levels across the region have dropped so low that they can no longer meet the irrigation need of roughly 500–600 liters per tree every 30 days.
A survey by Geological Team 704 in Đắk Lắk, Đắk Nông and Gia Lai shows that the region’s groundwater reserves have been declining sharply. Before 2006, these provinces could extract around 0.6 million m³ of groundwater per day; today, the available volume is less than 0.4 million m³.
Mr. Luyện reported that in Đắk Nông alone about 300 ha of coffee are already short of irrigation water: Tuy Đức district has 28 ha affected, Đắk R’lấp 25 ha, Đắk Song 70 ha, and the hardest-hit area, Krông Nô district, 155 ha.
In Đắk Lắk, early April 2010, the Krông Bông District Agriculture Office planned to provide more than 5,000 liters of fuel to help farmers pump water. But after supplying barely 1,000 liters, operations had to stop because local water sources ran dry. About 1,200 ha of coffee and nearly 400 ha of rice withered completely.
Facing the prolonged drought, the Đắk Nông Provincial People’s Committee issued a directive requiring all districts to manage and distribute irrigation water and for local agricultural offices to draw up emergency drought-response plans for areas most at risk at the end of the crop cycle.
“If the Central Highlands do not receive rain within the next one to two weeks, we cannot predict how many hectares of crops will die from the heat,” Mr. Luyện warned.
Across the region an estimated 10,000 ha of coffee and nearly 5,000 ha of rice are already suffering severe water shortages and could dry out completely. In addition, in the districts of La Grai, Chư Prông and Đức Cơ (Gia Lai), about 500 ha of coffee have been attacked by an unusual leaf-eating pest whose outbreak has been fueled by the persistent drought.
The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa) noted that in the 2009–2010 season, two typhoons (storms No. 9 and No. 10) already cut coffee yields in the Central Highlands by 20–35%. With this year’s harsh dry season, coffee yields are likely to fall further, as adequate water is essential for the plants to set beans during this growth stage.