Prolonged drought across Gia Lai province has left many coffee plantations scorched, with the risk of entire orchards dying and causing severe economic losses for local farmers.
According to the Provincial Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Search & Rescue, the ongoing drought threatens the environment by destroying vegetation, degrading air and water quality, and increasing the risk of forest fires and soil erosion. Economically and socially, it reduces crop productivity, planted areas, and yields—especially of staple food crops.
From the start of 2024 to April 10, total losses from drought and water shortages in Gia Lai are estimated at more than 9 billion VND.
Across the province, many coffee trees have begun to dry out and turn yellow. Water sources from wells and streams are almost depleted, leaving farmers helpless as their coffee plants wither.
Rơ Mah Glil of Kluh Yeh village (Ia Lang commune, Duc Co district) said more than half of his coffee orchard has already dried up. “If there’s no rain in the next few days, the whole plantation may be lost. We can only pray for rain to save the coffee,” he said.
Nearby, farmer Joanh has seen over 600 of his coffee trees scorched. In an attempt to save them, he hired workers to drill a well, hoping to find water for irrigation, but after several days of drilling, no water was found and the crop faces total loss.
In Ia Krieng commune (Duc Co district), the damage is widespread. Local authorities report over 14 hectares of coffee burned dry, with losses ranging from 30–50%, valued at hundreds of millions of dong.
Nguyen Quoc Tu, head of the district’s Agriculture and Rural Development Office, said Duc Co is among the hardest-hit areas in the province. By mid-April 2024, nearly 170 hectares of crops—mostly coffee—had been damaged by lack of irrigation. Much of the scorched coffee belongs to households that did not build reservoirs or drill wells to secure dry-season water. Even those with their own water sources are now seeing supplies run out as the drought persists.
Tu noted that finding water for irrigation is extremely difficult because there are no underground water reserves to tap. “The only option is to wait for rain and to survey the damaged coffee areas so we can request government relief,” he said.
Faced with the drought, Duc Co residents are urging Gia Lai authorities to invest in irrigation works and to promote water-saving irrigation technologies for coffee so that farmers can better secure water during dry seasons.