Simexco

Krong Nang

Jacob Douwe Egberts

Local indicators

Forest Positive Coalition

LandScale

Vegetables, Roots and Tubers

Avocado

Fruits

Pepper

Durian

Coffee

Proportion of children In education, disaggregated by gender 

The Kr&ocirc;ng Năng Landscape, located in Đắk Lắk province of Vietnam&rsquo;s Central Highlands, is a key hub for high-quality coffee production and biodiversity. Spanning over 61,000 hectares, it includes 23,132 ha of coffee, 3,665 ha of pepper, 5,167 ha of fruit trees, and 8,108 ha of forest. In 2021, the district launched the Kr&ocirc;ng Năng PPI (Production &ndash; Protection &ndash; Inclusion) Compact as a public-private partnership to transform the area into a large-scale sustainable sourcing landscape by 2025. The Compact focuses on three goals: conserving 5,675 ha of natural forest and reforesting 431 ha; ensuring 85% of coffee and intercropping areas adopt sustainable practices with 70% of coffee and 55% of non-coffee outputs connected to traceable supply chains; and increasing income by 15&ndash;20% for 42% of farming households, with at least 45% women participating in training.
This initiative began with a pilot project in a 5,200 ha area across parts of Ea Tan, Ea Toh, and Dlie Ya communes&mdash;selected for its unique sourcing model, where coffee is entirely procured by Simexco through cooperatives and local traders. The pilot zone, home to 30% ethnic minority populations and a 10% poverty rate, faced urgent sustainability challenges. These included excessive chemical use (70% of farms overused fertilizers and 60% overused or used banned pesticides), and severe water issues&mdash;17% of farms lacked water access, and all farms used about 30% more irrigation water than recommended, contributing to yield losses of up to 30% in dry years like 2016 and 2019.
As a pilot site for the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) database, Kr&ocirc;ng Năng also leads in traceability and deforestation-free supply chain efforts. Through close coordination between government, IDH, private sector partners like Simexco and JDE Peet&rsquo;s, and civil society, the Compact is setting a model for sustainable agriculture, climate resilience, and inclusive rural development.

Together IDH, JDE and Simexco aim to strengthen coffee farming practices in Krong Nang district in Dak Lak in Vietnam. Simexco will deliver services to farmers to improve GAP practices, agro-input use via soil testing, collector incentivizing and spraying teams, and water-use efficiency via testing of irrigation systems. Simexco will, together with the help of IDH, set up a service delivery model to provide farmers with access to these services.

SDM project with Simexco

Key activities of the Project will focus on raising awareness and capacities of coffee farmers on climate change adaptation, rational input use to reduce emissions of unwanted substances (e.g. nutrients, pesticides, GHG) to the environment. Along with capacity building activities, 130 demo plots will be developed and used as training grounds for Farmer Field Schools. Farm management data (through the adoption of Farmer Field Book) will be collected during the project duration to enable a quantitative estimation of the emissions of fertilizers, energy and pesticides and shared with farmers to stimulate better agriculture practices. Particular emphasis will also be put on the involvement of youth in coffee farming.
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Ultimately this should contribute to reducing a number of natural resource risks in the Central Highlands region, including: seasonal water scarcity, water pollution, and soil degradation. The Project will also contribute to reduced GHG emissions and a reduced carbon footprint of coffee, improved farm resilience to climate change, and a diversified farmer income.
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To reach these objectives, specific attention will be given to the following questions:
<ul>
<li>Is there a business case for farmers to change their current practices?</li>
<li>How can different stakeholders in the Central Highlands region cooperate in order to strengthen landscape level impact and/or strengthen the farmer business case?</li>
</ul>
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Building progressive insights on these topics should assist the partners to strengthen the implementation model so as to identify the upscaling potential. In assessing the program on a 6-monthly basis the Parties will re-assess the understanding of these key questions. For this purpose the Parties will share real-life data and the on-the-ground experiences and expertise of the implementing partners. Commonly documenting this learning journey will increase the in-depth understanding of how to attain the shared vision.

Supported Initiatives

Krong Nang