#FOODHEROES

Coffee in Vietnam

In the span of 30 years, Vietnam has gone from producing just 0.1 percent of the world’s coffee to producing 20 percent today. The country is now the world’s second largest coffee exporter, behind Brazil, and employs about 2.6 million people in the coffee-growing industry. With coffee now grown on half a million smallholder farms, the country attributes a large part of its dramatic reduction in poverty – from more than 60 percent in 1994 to less than 10 percent today – to the coffee boon.

The Challenge

Nguyen Hong Ky, who has been farming coffee for 18 years, says his yield has doubled since he started using crop protection products. “There are many difficulties in farming, but the key is to protect the crop from pests and diseases. Coffee is our living so a good crop is vital to our livelihood,” he says. There are a series of major threats to Nguyen’s coffee, including the fungus coffee rust, root nematodes and the coffee borer beetle.

The Solution

Nguyen Xuan Hoa, a plant scientist working on crop protection products for coffee, has a personal interest in helping farmers protect their crops: “I drink coffee everyday – it really makes my mind fresh!” In particular, he is researching improved protection from nematodes, which attack and destroy the plant’s root system, and he also provides advice to farmers. “First, farmers must remove infected plants. Then, they plant a new crop and must ensure that they apply pesticides to control any new nematode outbreak. Then, we get our coffee,” he adds.