Farmers and coffee enterprises in Đắk Lắk have begun the first round of irrigation for their coffee trees during the current dry season.
Since the start of the dry season, the Central Highlands Agroforestry Science and Technology Institute has advised ethnic minority farmers and coffee enterprises on proper irrigation methods and the amount of water needed to help ensure high yields for the 2010–2011 crop.
According to Dr. Lê Ngọc Báu, Director of the Institute, coffee trees have most of their roots concentrated near the soil surface and require a high amount of water during the dry season. Irrigation in the dry months is therefore a critical technical measure that directly determines the productivity of coffee in Vietnam in general and Đắk Lắk in particular. Without proper watering, or if watering is done incorrectly, coffee production becomes unprofitable, yields drop, and in some cases trees may fail to produce harvestable cherries.
However, for many years farmers have relied on experience and typically use far more water than the coffee trees actually need—often applying 800–1,000 liters per plant in a single watering. This excessive watering not only wastes precious water resources but also depletes soil fertility as nutrients are leached deeper than the reach of the coffee root system.
Research by the Institute recommends that for mature, producing coffee trees only 500–600 liters of water per plant every 25–30 days is sufficient to achieve yields of 3–4 tons of green coffee beans per hectare. For newly planted coffee (first year), each plant needs about 120 liters every 20–22 days, and for the next two years about 240 liters per plant every 20–22 days. Depending on local conditions, coffee in Đắk Lắk generally requires three to four irrigation cycles during each dry season.
Before irrigation, farmers and coffee enterprises typically clean and deepen the water basins at the base of each plant, weed, and prune side shoots to help the trees absorb water efficiently. Many have also invested in tens of thousands of meters of irrigation pipe and sprinkler heads, and set up temporary shelters in the fields to run pumps and keep water flowing continuously.
Đắk Lắk currently has more than 184,500 hectares of coffee, including 173,233 hectares of mature, producing trees.