Over 200 scientists, managers and local coffee farmers gathered in DakLak province on December 9 to seek solutions for the sustainablereplanting of old coffee trees and development of the industrial cropsin the Central Highlands.

Director of the National Centre forAgriculture Promotion Phan Huy Thong said the replanting of old coffeetrees is not a simple task, requiring measures to ensure theeffectiveness of the work and coffee output for exports in the comingyears.

Former Chairman of Dak Lak provincial People’s CommitteeNguyen Van Lang highlighted the close connection between effectivereplanting and sustainable development, stressing the importance of seedselection, growing caring, harvesting and processing to improve thevalue of coffee beans.

Participants suggested solutionslocalities develop specific plans on coffee replanting, set upmanagement boards at all levels to ensure the effective implementationof the plans.

They should build a database, document, conducttraining courses, workshops and technology transfer to farmers, theparticipants said.

They also discussed solutions on the quality of coffee varieties, funding and farmers’ access to finance.

Accordingto the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s PlantCultivation Department, the country has a 635,000 ha of coffee withplants on 86,000 ha being more than 20 years old and on another140,000ha, 15-20 years old.

About 1400,000 – 160,000 ha of coffee trees need to be replanted in the next five and 10 years.

TheCentral Highlands region, comprising Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Lam Dong, GiaLai and Kon Tum provinces, and southern Binh Phuoc province need toreplant about 200,000 ha of coffee by 2020.-VNA