Page 80 - Agricultural innovation

Figure 20. Organic pepper garden and drying equipment at Binh Minh Cooperative
Source: IPSARD, survey in 2022

In 2017, the cooperative was supported by the sustainable pepper project 4C of Hanoi Import-
Export Production Service Joint Stock Company with a loan of 150 million VND to build a warehouse
to store agricultural products; joint production of products under RA (Rainforest Alliance) certification
and purchase over 100 tons of pepper with a higher price of 3,000–5,000 VND compared to the
market price. The VnSAT project supported a training course on sustainable coffee development with
37 participating farmers; one training course to guide six cooperative staff on management skills,
sustainable coffee production techniques, teamwork skills, general skills; at the same time, support 14
million VND to build a sustainable coffee production model; support from 50–80% of capital to build
two save watering models.
To overcome the changes of the weather, the cooperative built a system of drying using coffee husks
and rice husks burned by flox technology to preliminarily process coffee when facing adverse conditions
to make green coffee beans have a beautiful color and good quality, saving time for preliminary
processing and preservation. In particular, the drying oven does not pollute the environment. In
addition to coffee drying services for people in the cooperative area, a large amount of biochar is also
obtained and sold to the market.
In recent years, with the trend of landscape coffee cultivation and crop diversification, especially
the intercropping of fruit trees in coffee gardens, many different agricultural products have been
created and the issue of consumption has become a major issue. However, with the dynamism of the
young and enthusiastic cooperative staff, they have been quite effective in supporting the cooperative
members. In addition to coffee and pepper, the cooperative also sells other agricultural products to the
people such as avocado, banana, and durian with various addresses including: i) Central Market in
Buon Ma Thuot city; ii) Send passenger cars to the provinces with the volume of about five tons/day;
iii) Selling instant coffee to companies such as Phuoc Sang, Intimex, Tan An; and iv) Selling roasted
and ground coffee at local coffee shops, etc.
Thanks to the association of coffee and pepper producing households in a sustainable way, the lives
of cooperative members are constantly being improved. Up to now, the cooperative has attracted 145
members, the average income of each household is from 150–500 million VND/year. From this source
of income, many households stabilize their lives and can meet their basic needs.
However, after a number of years of operation, the biggest success of the cooperative is to change
people’s thinking about collective economic development because the elders in the village are very
“allergic with the former subsidy-era cooperative” that they had experienced.

Agricultural Innovation Review in CLV Countries 73