The Women of Vietnam’s Central Highlands

Part III of a Vietnam travelogue from Dipika Chawla, our New York-based online communities coordinator.

The shade trees overhead provided welcome protection from the mid-morning sun as I joined about 100 farmers on a Robusta coffee farm in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. We were gathered for a NESCAFÉ Plan farmer training session, the first of six that will take place over the next year.

Phung Thi Huu, a lead farmer under the NESCAFÉ Better Farming Practices training program, talks to a group of 100 Vietnamese farmers about rejuvenation, grafting, pruning, harvesting and other topics relevant to the region.

Here, Phung Thi Huu — a petite, middle-aged woman who wielded her megaphone with natural confidence — easily commanded the attention of the large group of mostly male farmers as she spoke about rejuvenation, grafting, pruning, harvesting and other topics relevant to the region.  As a NESCAFÉ Plan participant and community leader, Huu had taken part in the NESCAFÉ Better Farming Practices (NBFP) training program earlier this year hosted with support from the Rainforest Alliance. She is now responsible for training and managing 90 farmers from her village, Cao Thang, in the Dak Lak province.

Afterwards, when the whole group sat down for lunch at the home of one of the farmers, Huu worked the crowd. She floated between different groups of people, joking, laughing comfortably and making sure everyone had a place to sit. At one point, I watched a farmer say something to her and saw her respond with a smile and a bashful, dismissive gesture. My interpreter learned over and said, “He was telling her what a great speaker she was today.”

Farmers listen attentively to Huu’s dynamic presentation.

After lunch, I sat down with Huu to talk about her experience as a coffee farmer. I learned that her family had once cultivated rice. Seeking a more profitable crop, they switched to coffee in 1989, and many families in the village soon followed suit.

According to Huu, who has been part of the NESCAFE Plan since 2011, the training has deepened her technical knowledge of coffee farming. For example, she now knows how to select better quality seedlings and how to determine the exact amount of fertilizer required without letting any go to waste.

Two other women farmers I spoke with during my trip, Phung Thi Ngoc Loan and Thi Huong Nguyen, identified pruning techniques as one of the most important topics covered during the training program.

Phung Thi Ngoc Loan, a farmer in Vietnam, says that through training ““we learned that if you don’t prune the coffee trees properly, there will be too many branches sucking all the nutrients from the soil, which reduces productivity later on.”

“We learned that if you don’t prune the coffee trees properly, there will be too many branches sucking all the nutrients from the soil, which reduces productivity later on,” explained Loan. “If you do prune properly, the tree will be healthier and produce more cherries.”

Loan said that the training showed her how to identify early symptoms of coffee disease and pest damage. She has also started a compost pile with readily available materials, such as coffee husks, that she can use as fertilizer — thereby allowing her to decrease her use of chemical fertilizers. She estimates that she has reduced her fertilizer expenses by 10 to 20 percent as a result of composting.

A dog stands on a coffee farm in Vietnam.

Reducing chemical use is a common theme in the program. In addition to reducing chemical fertilizers, all three farmers reported using less herbicide for weeding purposes. On her small 3.7-acre (1.5-hectare) farm, Nguyen has cut out herbicides altogether, relying solely on hand weeding. In doing so, she’s protecting her family’s health and keeping valuable insects that help to soften her soil.

The Nguyen family carries out all of the field work, except in the harvest season, when they may hire a few extra laborers.

I asked Nguyen if she had noticed any other differences in the natural environment. “There are more birds, because of the shade trees and because we’ve been using less chemicals,” she said.  “Actually, they’re very useful for catching small pests.”

A spread of dried coffee cherries.

The shade trees offer more than bird habitat. In the training, Nguyen learned how to more evenly disperse the shade trees on her farm to create a proper canopy, which protects the coffee plants, maintains humidity and limits the growth of weeds. Fruit-bearing shade trees (such as avocado, durian and lychee) provide an added bonus. “Some of the fruit we eat and the rest we can sell at the market for a bit of extra income,” said Nguyen.

For Nguyen and Loan, the transition to sustainable agriculture has been smooth.  “In general, none of the new techniques are too difficult to follow,” Loan said. “If I have a question, I can just ask my neighbors and imitate what they are doing.”

Indeed, the vast majority of the coffee farmers in the region are smallholders, and neighbors are more than willing to help each other and exchange advice. “Some of my neighbors didn’t participate in the earlier trainings,” recalled Loan. “So when I returned from the training, I taught them what I learned about grafting techniques. After seeing how beneficial it was, they decided to participate in the next session.”

Huu posed with her grandson on her coffee farm.

Huu, on the other hand, had a somewhat different perspective as a lead farmer responsible for formally passing on the information to the other farmers in her village. She identified cultural differences as an issue, since several of the farmers in Cao Thang belong to different ethnic groups. She found that the language barrier sometimes makes it difficult to communicate and the older generation can be more resistant to adopting unfamiliar modern practices. She noted, however, that the younger generation, regardless of ethnicity, is always eager to learn and picks up new techniques very quickly.

In the short time since she joined the NESCAFÉ Plan, Huu has already perceived noticeable benefits to her farm. Her yields are higher and her costs are reduced, and she is pleased with her family’s increased awareness. They have all improved their knowledge of coffee quality, sanitation, chemical safety and environmental impacts. This means a better farming business for generations to come.

All three women said they looked forward to participating in as many NESCAFÉ Plan training events as possible. “I am always trying to learn more,” said Loan. “Farmers always need to learn more.”

Read part I and II of Dipika’s Vietnam travelogue.

Inside the NESCAFÉ Plan in Vietnam

Part II of a travelogue by Dipika Chawla, our New York-based online communities coordinator.

At 6:30 a.m. I left my hotel in Buon Ma Thuot for my first-ever visit to a coffee farm. I’d spent a few days in the coffee capital of Vietnam, and while the influence of the region’s signature crop was unmistakable, I had yet to see a single coffee plant. As much as I liked Buon Ma Thuot, I had traveled halfway around the world to observe what the Rainforest Alliance and NESCAFÉ were doing to improve sustainability among coffee farms in Vietnam.

Coffee cherries drying in Vietnam.

Bleary-eyed as a New Yorker would be at this unthinkable hour, I was only half aware of the farmers around me exchanging spirited greetings and jokes as we climbed into vans that would take us to the Ea Kao commune. An early departure does not faze those who are accustomed to beginning their day at dawn, but it was another story for a New Yorker like me.

We hit the road and the cramped buildings of the city were quickly replaced by simple cement and brick houses separated by modest plots of coffee plants. We were on our way to the first of six farmer training sessions given under the NESCAFÉ Plan in Vietnam, an ambitious sustainability initiative Nestlé launched in 2010. Since then, the company has been working with the Rainforest Alliance, the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) and the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C) to provide training and support to farmers to help them improve productivity, efficiency and long-term sustainability.

Coffee growers gathered at the planning meeting.

After a drive that took us down narrow, bumpy roads and past herds of cows and goats, we finally exited our van to walk the last few hundred feet to the outdoor training site, where 100 or so participating farmers talked and laughed as they eagerly awaited the start of training.

The Nestlé and Rainforest Alliance trainers at the event had worked hard to get to that moment. This farmer training, the first of six sessions, marked the beginning of the last phase of the NESCAFÉ Better Farming Practices (NBFP) training program — the farmer training component of the NESCAFÉ Plan. Earlier this year, agricultural experts from the Rainforest Alliance provided technical assistance and training to Nestlé’s agronomists in Vietnam, who in turn trained a select group of lead farmers in the Dak Lak province.

Pham Phu Ngoc, Nestlé’s sustainable agriculture development manager in Vietnam, told me that Nestlé is very interested in Vietnam, and in Dak Lak in particular. “Nestlé is the largest coffee roaster in the world, and Vietnam is the number one producer of Robusta coffee in the world,” Ngoc explained. “Vietnamese farmers care more about improvement than other farmers. They want to be the best, to always be learning the best techniques. That’s especially true here in Dak Lak, where  there have already been many rural development initiatives. They are familiar with working with outside entities, and eager to welcome progress.”

Dipika Chawla and Pham Tuong Vinh with Nescafe representatives.

Indeed, the farmers I spoke with echoed this sentiment. One farmer, Thi Huong Nguyen, said she learned about the NBFP training program from a neighboring coffee farmer. The program was also publicized by her local farmers’ association. “As a farmer, I am always searching for new things,” she told me. “The first, most important thing for farmers is widening one’s knowledge. Also, I heard that through this program, farmers are getting higher yields and reducing their fertilizer costs.”

Many of the other farmers I spoke with had learned about the program through word of mouth. According to Ngoc, this “coffee culture” of fast-spreading advice sometimes presents challenges for the NESCAFÉ Plan. For example, agrochemical companies convince farmers that they should increase the amount of herbicide they use in order to reduce the labor needed for weeding. This advice then spreads quickly throughout the community, as farmers eagerly share their newfound knowledge with their neighbors, unaware of the negative implications of herbicides for worker health and the environment.

Direct payments can also pose a problem. “Sometimes companies will hold village meetings and advertise that they are giving an envelope of money to anyone who shows up,” Ngoc said. “Obviously, everyone finds out about this. So when we call for a meeting to invite farmers to participate in the NESCAFÉ Plan, people want to know if we are giving out money. We have to explain that we don’t give out money, it is up to the farmers to participate voluntarily because they desire the long-term benefits.”

Pham Phu Ngoc is Nestlé’s sustainable agriculture development manager.

Though the program does not use gimmicks such as cash envelopes, Ngoc emphasized that building trust is the most important part of the Plan. “We are different from the other programs because of the level of involvement from the farmers themselves,” Ngoc explained. “We build trust from both sides. We don’t promise anything to the farmers that we are not sure we can do.”

Phung Thi Huu, one of the lead farmers in Ea Kao, confirms that while other organizations she’s worked with gave out information and then were never seen again, Nestlé and the Rainforest Alliance have been there to offer support and technical advice throughout the past year.

At the farmer training session, I can see a rapport borne of continued support and engagement. The representatives from Nestlé and the Rainforest Alliance are comfortable among the local farmers. During the presentations, there is much joking and laughing, and farmers raise questions and concerns openly.  At lunchtime, we all gather at one of the farmer’s homes and enjoy a meal of farm-raised chicken and sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves. The mood is festive: many animated conversations are going on at once, small children wander through the room, eyeing the foreigner (me) with curiosity, and everyone finds a comfortable spot on the floor. If you didn’t know any better, you might think this was just a gathering of neighbors and friends with shared values. And in a way, it is.

Read part one of Dipika’s Vietnam travelogue.

A Sustainable Future for Vietnam

Dipika Chawla, our New York-based online communities coordinator, shares stories from her recent trip to meet with coffee farmers in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam.

As my plane descended into Buon Ma Thuot, the capital of Dak Lak province, I peered down at the rectangular plots of coffee plants stretching neat and green across the fertile landscape.  Three flights and two days after leaving New York City, I’d finally landed in Vietnam’s “capital of coffee,” known for decades as the heart of Vietnam’s flourishing coffee industry.

Vietnam has a vibrant coffee culture.

Accompanying me was Pham Tuong Vinh, Vietnam country coordinator for the Rainforest Alliance’s sustainable landscapes team. During the car ride from the airport to our hotel, Vinh pointed out the multitude of cafés populating every street. Though the average consumer in the West may not immediately associate Vietnam with coffee, this Southeast Asian nation boasts a vibrant coffee culture and is actually the second largest coffee exporter in the world. It is also the number one exporter of Robusta coffee, a variety that is cheaper to produce, more disease-resistant and stronger in flavor and caffeine content than the Arabica variety favored by most Western coffee drinkers.

Such a huge share of the world’s coffee production means that positive changes made in Vietnam resonate globally—making the Rainforest Alliance’s work here tremendously significant. Over a meal of curried chicken and fried rice with fish sauce, I got the chance to speak with Vinh about the Rainforest Alliance’s efforts to transform Vietnam’s coffee industry. “The national government wants 20 percent of Robusta coffee production to be certified as sustainable by 2016,” she said. “There are already five companies in Vietnam that own Rainforest Alliance Certified^TM coffee farms, and we expect that number to grow.”

Pham Tuong Vinh is the Vietnam country coordinator for the Rainforest Alliance’s sustainable landscapes team.

One of the Rainforest Alliance’s most important collaborations in Vietnam is with NESCAFÉ, Nestlé’s line of instant coffee and one of the largest coffee brands in the world. For more than a decade, NESCAFÉ and the Rainforest Alliance have worked together on coffee farms to define advanced farm management practices and improve the livelihoods of farmers. The Rainforest Alliance’s experienced agricultural specialists are working alongside Nestlé’s agronomists, the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) and 4C (Common Code for the Coffee Community) to combine traditional farmer wisdom with modern science to give farmers new tools and techniques so that they can succeed in their quest for sustainability.

In addition to working with coffee growers, the Rainforest Alliance is also promoting sustainable practices on tea farms that cover more than 328,000 acres (133,000 hectares) of land in Vietnam. In 2011, Vinh oversaw the training of 40 smallholders from tea estates in the north as well as the first certification of a Vietnamese tea company, Phu Ben. Our agriculture team aims to have 30,000 metric tons of tea grown on certified farms by 2015.

[From left to right] Dipika Chawla, our New York-based online communities coordinator, with a Vietnamese farmer.

The Rainforest Alliance has also adapted the SAN Standard to encompass the production of spices, including pepper. Vietnam, along with India, Indonesia and Madagascar, has been chosen as a location to implement the first phase of this project. The standard addresses a number of widespread problems in the pepper farming industry, including soil and water conservation, protection of workers, responsible waste management and the prohibition of dangerous pesticides and genetically modified organisms. In March 2012, the Rainforest Alliance completed an adaptation of these guidelines for pepper farming in Vietnam.

While we are making progress, transforming the agricultural sector in Vietnam is not without its challenges. According to Vinh, it has been difficult to change attitudes toward agrochemical use. “Farmers traditionally use a lot of chemicals in their fertilizer and for pest and weed control,” she said. “They even use paraquat, which is known to cause serious neurological damage.”

A coffee farmer stands among her cherries.

As most of Vietnam’s coffee is produced on small family farms between two and three acres (one and two hectares) in size, much of the field work is done by family members. Consequently, issues involving worker health hit, quite literally, close to home. As part of the Rainforest Alliance training program,  Vinh educates farmers about the dangers of certain chemicals and trains them to use safer techniques, such as applying a combination of less harmful agrochemicals and organic compost as fertilizer, employing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques instead of resorting to heavy pesticide use, and partially or fully replacing herbicides with hand and machine weeding. (The Sustainable Agriculture Network standards allow for some limited, rigorously controlled agrochemicals and strictly prohibit all chemicals listed on the Dirty Dozen list of the Pesticide Action Network North America as well as those banned by the USDA and the European Food and Drug Administration.) Farmers must keep a log of all purchases and applications of permitted chemicals, and the Rainforest Alliance provides ongoing training and assistance to help farmers continue to reduce their use of agrochemicals.

Vinh recalled a conversation with one particular tea farmer, about a year after she had been trained by the Rainforest Alliance. “She told me that she’s so happy with how clean her farm is now that they are properly dealing with waste,” said Vinh. “She said people have taken notice of how beautiful her farm looks with all of the shade trees and lack of waste. She’s also happy that her family’s health is being protected, as they’ve stopped using SAN-prohibited pesticides and learned how to use personal protective equipment while using chemicals.”

Although the Rainforest Alliance has only been working in Vietnam for a few years, nearly 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares) of its farmland have already been certified. “We are very young in Vietnam,” Pham said, “But I think step by step, we are contributing to changing the landscape of the agricultural sector.”