Support cooperatives to build high-quality coffee development infrastructure

On August 22, in Gia Lai province, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will hold a ceremony to kick off the construction and installation of Component 5 "Investment in Infrastructure to support cooperatives to develop high-quality coffee material in the Central Highlands," under the project of Infrastructure investment to support cooperatives to develop raw material areas.

This project is the pilot project to build a standard coffee material area for domestic consumption and export in 2022 - 2025. The investment and construction of the project is the desire of many farmers with high expectations to develop high-quality coffee raw materials to reach the world. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development assigned the project to the Management Board of Agricultural Projects as an investor for implementation.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development assessment, the project was built to connect transport infrastructure with coffee production areas of localities and cooperatives, contributing to reducing investment costs in production. In addition, the project aims to promote the development of agricultural cooperatives as a bridge connecting people and businesses in consuming quality coffee products.

With Component 5 in Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces, the project is expected to form a centralized and modern commodity-scale coffee raw material production area, applying advanced technology based on sustainable linkages between cooperatives and processing and exporting enterprises. Thereby promoting quickly, effectively, and sustainably the process of agricultural restructuring and new rural construction in Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces. Also, develop and improve the role and performance of agricultural cooperatives in the coffee value chain. In addition, meeting the quality requirements and reducing the cost of coffee materials for processing and exporting, increasing income, and contributing to improving the lives of local people.

This construction project for agriculture is nurtured from the expectations of people in Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces, in line with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development policy and the strong companionship of many coffee production businesses.

With many years of experience in implementing ODA projects in the agricultural sector, the Agriculture Projects Management Board has been assigned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to construct many projects across all regions, especially in the Central Highlands region. In particular, the success of the VnSAT project implemented from 2015 to 2021 has been internationally recognized and honored as a typical project of Southeast Asia. Here, the VnSAT Project has trained more than 30,000 households on a sustainable coffee replanting process with nearly 30,000 hectares, of which 25,000 households have replanted with an area of more than 22,000 hectares. Among them, almost 12,000 hectares have loans for replanting from the project's credit program with a total loan of more than 2,000 billion VND.

On the other hand, the VnSAT project supported more than 200 farmer organizations, built and upgraded 233km of rural roads, 2km of canals, 75 warehouses, more than 34,000m2 of coffee drying yards, 58 coffee dryers get high. The project's support in terms of equipment and infrastructure has been effectively put into operation by farmer organizations.

Le Van Hien, Head of the Management Board of Agricultural Projects, said that the pilot project to build sustainable coffee material areas continues to support some cooperatives to invest in construction items to develop infrastructure, forming a production area of coffee production materials with an area of 19,700ha.

With Component 5 in the Central Highlands, the project is invested in building about 80 billion VND. Although the capital is not significant, it is essential in implementing the pilot project to develop the raw material area and is the long-awaited desire of many farmers.

It is known that the Management Board of Agricultural Projects is assigned to implement the project of Investment in infrastructure to support cooperatives in developing raw material areas with five different components, including developing raw material areas for edible crops in northern mountainous region (Hoa Binh, Son La); To create FSC-certified plantation timber material areas in the central coastal region (Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue); Developing rice material areas in the Long Xuyen Quadrangle (An Giang, Kien Giang); To develop fruit-tree material areas in Dong Thap Muoi (Dong Thap, Long An, Tien Giang); Developing high-quality coffee material areas in the Central Highlands (Gia Lai, Dak Lak).

Component 5 of the project Investment in infrastructure to support cooperatives to develop high-quality coffee material areas in the Central Highlands includes the Construction of rural roads of grades A and B with a total length of 27.43km connecting the raw material area. Gia Lai province invested in building 6 roads with a total length of 12.43km. Dak Lak province invested in building 5 routes with a total distance of 15km). Newly built 3 coffee warehouses for 3 cooperatives in Dak Lak province, total area 1,125m2. Newly built 2 warehouses combined with coffee display houses for cooperatives in Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces with an area of 158 m2/house.