Tens of thousands of hectares of coffee in the Central Highlands arefacing water shortage, potentially costing growers heavily, according tothe Steering Committee for the Central Highlands Region.

Currently, only 19.3 percent of coffee farms in the region are beingwatered by local irrigation works and the remaining 80.7 percent dependlargely on rivers and streams, which dried up in the current drought,the committee noted.

As of April 24, nearly 40,000hectares of coffee in Dak Lak province, a key coffee cultivation area ofthe country, have been affected.

Climate change,coupled with dwindling forest areas and unsustainable exploitation ofwater resources, are attributable to the serious decrease in watersources in the region.

In this context, the Steering Committeefor Central Highlands Region advised regional localities not to expandcoffee farms and shift to cultivate other types of plants withdrought-tolerant features.

Regional localities are home to 2,354irrigation works, including 1,190 reservoirs, 972 dams and 130 waterstations, supplying water to 202,166 crop-farming hectares.

Under a master irrigation plan for the region until 2020, they willinvest 58 trillion VND (2.76 billion USD) in upgrading and repairing 756irrigation works and building 1,614 new ones.
The effortaims to raise farming areas being watered to nearly 540,000 hectares andcoffee areas benefited to 51.28 percent.

CentralHighlands localities currently cultivate more than 573,400 hectares ofcoffee, with Dak Lak having the largest area of 204,400 hectares,followed by Lam Dong with 157,307 hectares and Dak Nong, 118, 469hectares.-VNA