A club for coffee growers to share their cultivation knowledge andexperiences has made its debut in the southern province of Dong Nai.

It has attracted over 100 coffee farmers from theCentral Highlands provinces of Dak Lak, Dac Nong, Lam Dong and Gia Lai,who will regularly discuss vital issues including agronomic seasonalconcerns, weather forecast, pests, diseases, weed management as well asmarket prices and export conditions.

BayerCropScience Vietnam will provide training and organise seminarsfeaturing agronomists and experts on sustainable coffee production,innovative pesticide solutions to improve yield, quality and profits.

Pham Xuan Quang, a club's manager, said, "This is a useful forum for better coffee yields."

The English language daily Viet Nam News quoted Torsten Velden, BayerCropScience’s country division as saying that as coffee is second onlyto rice in value of agricultural products exported from Vietnam, theywould like to support this further.

“With thelaunch of the club, we aim to create a forum where key coffee growers inVietnam can reflect and develop their professional aspirations in thefield, and eventually help increase yield, quality, and profit in asustainable manner," he said.

The opening of theclub follows a programme called Bayer Much More Coffee, which wasstarted in 2013 to improve agronomy methods and make efficient use ofcrop protection inputs.

The programme was developedwith the Western Highlands Agriculture and Science Institute and hasbeen tested and proven with the support of coffee farmers.

Coffee farmers taking part in the programme have seen their profitsincrease by at least 25 percent compared to normal practices, thecompany said.-VNA