Worst Dry Spell in Memory
Table of Contents
A brutal drought is sweeping through Đắk Nông Province, leaving vast swaths of Vietnam’s key coffee region parched. Reservoirs are empty, streams have vanished and ponds lie cracked and dry—just as global coffee prices hit record highs.
Mrs. Lê Thị Quyên of Team 4, Thuận An Commune, Đắk Mil District, holds a charred coffee branch, its blackened cherries crumbling to dust. After nearly five years of investment to rejuvenate her plantation, her trees were finally entering peak production when the drought struck.
“We depend on coffee for our livelihood, but now the trees are dying. There’s no water—even the irrigation reservoir is empty,” she said. “High prices mean nothing if we have no harvest.”
Farmers Fighting for Survival
Veteran grower Nguyễn Bá Luân in Đắk Thọ Hamlet, Đắk Lao Commune, calls this the worst dry spell he has ever experienced. After more than five rainless months, he spent heavily on 33 rolls of hose to pump the last trickles of water from a reservoir 1.5 km away, where a dozen pumps now compete for the few muddy pools left.
“Water is scarce everywhere,” Luân said. “If we can’t irrigate, then high prices mean nothing—we’ll have a lost harvest.”
Đắk Mil—the province’s largest coffee zone with over 21,000 ha—is among the hardest hit:
-
17 of its 46 irrigation works are already dry, the rest near “dead water” levels.
-
5,100 farm ponds are essentially empty.
-
Nearly 2,000 drilled wells cannot meet demand.
Thousands of hectares of coffee are wilting or already dead.
“In our commune alone there are over 9,000 ha of coffee,” said Phan Xuân Vinh, deputy chairman of the Đắk Lao People’s Committee. “If this weather continues another week to ten days, about 85% of the coffee will fail—at least 60% will be a total loss.”
Province-Wide Emergency
Province-wide, Đắk Nông has about 140,000 ha of coffee. The agriculture department reports 10,000 ha already affected, with the number rising fast as water sources dry up.
-
31 of 307 irrigation facilities are empty.
-
The rest hold barely 40% of designed capacity and continue to drop.
According to Nguyễn Tường Duy, deputy director of the provincial Irrigation Works Company, water redistribution is now impossible.
“Any remaining water must be kept for local needs. Where water is gone, we can only give up,” he warned. “More than 2,400 ha already have no drought-control measures. If this intense heat lasts into late April or early May, the damage will be immense.”
Record Prices Offer No Relief
Ironically, coffee prices have never been higher, yet growers are facing catastrophic losses. Despite desperate measures—installing pumps, stretching hoses, and rationing the last reserves—many can only watch their trees wither under the relentless sun.
This year’s record export prices cannot offset the devastating crop losses, leaving the province’s farmers confronting one of the most painful seasons in memory.