VietNamNet Bridge - A Highlands Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute (WASI) shows that the climate change has had big impacts on agriculture, while coffee is one of the most affected crops.

Scientists have warned that farmers would face water shortage in the context of the temperature increase if they cannot control the watering.

According to Truong Hong, deputy head of WASI, farmers have been wasting water because of the intensive farming habit. Farmers now use 50-60 percent more than the volume of water needed to water coffee plants in dry season, from January to April.

Hong said farmers use 700-1,000 liters of water for every plant each time, while they need to water plants three times in every crop. Meanwhile, if they can have proper irrigation techniques, they will need 340-400 liters only, which means that they can save 50 percent of water volume.

Proper irrigation technique not only allows to save water, but also helps make plants grow up in a right way, thus allowing more beans. As the volume of water coffee plants absorb is just sufficient, this would facilitate the absorption of nutrients from the soil, therefore, the coffee quality would be better.

Besides, scientists also pointed out that proper watering would also help save water.

The climate change has had big impacts on agriculture, while coffee is one of the most affected crops.

Therefore, they have called on coffee growers, especially in the Central Highlands, to practice the proper irrigation techniques to ensure the coffee yield and save water. 

Nestle and the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development have co-funded the 5 million euro project on rational use of water for irrigation to improve economic efficiency for the coffee industry. The five provinces in the Central Highlands benefiting from the project include Dak Lak, Kon tum, Lam Dong, Gia Lai and Dak Nong. 

The project, aiming to help 50,000 farmer households irrigate coffee crops effectively will last from April 2015 to 2019.

According to Hoang Manh Thu, a farmer in Cu Ne commune in Dak Lak province, the irrigation sprinkler system helps him save 1/3 of fertilizer volume, ½ of the labor cost, ½ of the electricity expenses and oil for water pumping machines. Meanwhile, Thu affirmed the coffee yield has increased by 12-14 percent.

Since the water resources are getting scarcer, experts have suggested applying the water management according to the market rules.

Dang Ngoc Hanh from the Water Resources Economics and Management Institute said that the current policy on exempting irrigation fee for farmers causes a lot of problems. This makes it difficult to call for private investments, and it is difficult to manage and distribute water for irrigation purpose.

Thien Nhien