During the peak of the dry season, thousands of hectares of coffee in the Central Highlands—particularly in Đắk Nông province—suffer from severe drought, a consequence of deforestation and the rapid expansion of coffee cultivation in recent years.
A major factor aggravating this situation is the unregulated use of surface water and the over-extraction of groundwater for coffee irrigation. This has made water shortages during the dry season increasingly serious. In this context, the water-saving coffee cultivation model developed by farmers in Đắk Mil district has proven highly effective.
Increasing Water Scarcity
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With irrigation water becoming ever scarcer, especially for coffee during the dry season, the question arises: how can local water resources be managed efficiently to ensure production across all farmland? This is not only an issue for Đắk Mil but for Đắk Nông province as a whole.
Although Đắk Mil has headwater streams belonging to the Đồng Nai and Sêrêpôk river basins—such as the Đắk N’reng, Đắk Sor, Đắk Mâm, and Đắk Gằn streams—most are small and usually run dry in the dry season. The district also has 11 reservoirs with a total capacity of about 15 million m³, plus 10 smaller reservoirs managed by state farms and forestry enterprises, adding roughly 1 million m³. Even so, these can irrigate only about 1,000 ha of crops—far short of the 1,814 ha design capacity.
Of that irrigated area, 325 ha is wet rice and vegetables and roughly 700 ha is perennial crops, mainly coffee. Because of the shortage of surface water, this year farmers in communes such as Đắk Sắc, Đắk Gằn, Đức Minh, Đức Mạnh, Thuận An, and Đắk Lao have paid to dig or drill wells—often tens of meters deep—to pump groundwater for coffee. Over-pumping has led to aquifer depletion and falling water tables due to unregulated extraction.
Surveys by Geological Team 704 in parts of Đắk Lắk, Gia Lai, and Đắk Nông (including Đắk Mil) show that groundwater levels in the Central Highlands have been dropping sharply. The reasons include lower annual rainfall, longer dry seasons, shrinking forest cover, reduced soil surface protection, and a rapid increase in water-demanding crops—especially coffee. As a result, groundwater levels have fallen by 3–5 m compared with previous years.
Water-Saving Farming Solutions
Faced with this, Đắk Mil authorities have considered various strategies: reforestation and forest protection, building new reservoirs, reinforcing irrigation canals. But the most practical approach—highly economical and environmentally friendly—is water-saving coffee cultivation. This method is now strongly supported by local government and widely adopted by coffee growers, and is being expanded throughout the province.
Windbreaks and Shade Trees.
One pioneer is Trần Văn Hải of Thuận An commune, who planted black cassia, leguminous species, and other trees around his coffee fields as windbreaks and shade. “In the dry season, strong winds accelerate evaporation and dry out crops,” Hải explained. “By planting windbreaks and intercropping shade trees, I reduced evaporation, saved on fuel for irrigation, and improved the field’s ecology. Fallen leaves enrich the soil and provide natural mulch. Every dry season I save significantly on irrigation costs and my coffee yield reaches 5 tons of green beans per hectare—higher than neighboring farms.”
Thanks to the clear benefits, many local farmers, including ethnic minority households, have visited Hải’s farm to learn and replicate the technique.
Intercropping and Mulching.
In Đắk Gằn commune, known for its stony, drought-prone soils, many farmers now intercrop shade trees with fruit and other industrial crops in their coffee fields. Trần Thành Tâm, for example, used to irrigate his 2 ha of coffee four to five times each dry season with modest yields. After introducing shade trees, he needs one less irrigation round, earns extra income from fruit such as durian, mango, rubber, and cashew, and has significantly increased coffee yields while cutting costs.
Another popular practice is mulching coffee bases with plant residues—grass, crop waste, corn stalks, banana leaves, coffee husks. According to K’Lơm of Jun Jú hamlet, Đức Minh commune, who has applied mulching for five years: “Mulching keeps the soil moist much longer, so I water less frequently and save substantial irrigation costs—without any drop in coffee yield.”
Strong Results and Future Expansion
Đắk Mil is Đắk Nông’s largest coffee-growing district, with nearly 20,000 ha under cultivation. For many years, thousands of farmers have implemented water-saving coffee models, cutting production costs while maintaining high yields—on average 2.5–3 tons of green beans per hectare, and for some well-managed farms 5–6 tons.
According to the Đắk Mil Farmers’ Association, these water-saving models not only improve economic returns but also enrich soil nutrients and reduce the pressure on limited dry-season water resources. As droughts intensify and water becomes scarcer, this model should be rapidly scaled up across the entire province for truly sustainable coffee production.