Collaboration for Agriculture & Rural Development: " Cocoa Fermentation and Drying and Quality Assessment in Vietnam " potx

Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development Collaboration for Agriculture & Rural Development 013VIE05 VIE: Cocoa Fermentation and Drying and Quality Assessment in Vietnam COCOA FARM

Trang 1

Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development

Collaboration for Agriculture & Rural Development

013VIE05 VIE: Cocoa Fermentation and Drying and Quality

Assessment in Vietnam

COCOA FARMERS SURVEY: BEN TRE, CAN THO and

DAK LAK PROVINCES 2006 & 2007

Trang 2

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 5

Introduction 5

Section 1: List of Participants 7

Gender 10

Ben Tre Province: 10

Can Tho Province: 10

Dak Lak and Dak Nong 10

Age Distribution 10

2.3 Education level 11

2.4 Family size 11

2.5 Occupation 12

Section 3: Establishment of cocoa 13

3.1 Sources of information on growing cocoa 13

Ben Tre Province 13

Can Tho Province 14

3.2 Purchasing of cocoa seedlings 14

3.2.1 Distance to travel to purchase seedlings 14

Can Tho Province 15

Dak Lak and Dak Nong Provinces 15

3.2.2 Prices paid for seedlings 15

Ben Tre Province 15

Can Tho Province 15

3.3 Labour and time inputs for planting seedlings 16

3.4 Time for production of pods 16

Ben Tre Province 16

3.5 Pod production with time 17

Section 4: Farm Demographics 17

4.1 Size of farm and area planted to cocoa 17

4.2 Plantings of cocoa 19

Ben Tre 19

Can Tho Province 20

4.3 Density of cocoa tree plantings 21

Trang 3

Can Tho Province 22

4.4 Outlook for growing cocoa 22

Ben Tre Province 22

4.5 Crop Diversification 22

Ben Tre Province 22

Can Tho Province 22

Dak Lak and Dak Nong Provinces 23

Section 5: Time and labour inputs in processing cocoa 23

5.1 Harvesting pods 23

Ben Tre Province 23

5.2 Pod Storage 24

5.3 Breaking of pods 24

5.4 Fermentation of cocoa 24

5.5 Transferring beans from fermenting boxes to drying baskets 24

5.6 Drying of cocoa 25

Section 6: Selling of cocoa crop 25

Category 1: Selling fermented and dried cocoa 28

Ben Tre Province 28

Can Tho, Dak Lak and Dak Nong Provinces 29

Category 3: Selling pods only 29

Ben Tre Province 29

Category 2: Selling both fermented dried beans and pods 30

Ben Tre, Can Tho, Dak Lak and Dak Nong Provinces 30

Summary of findings re labour and incomes 32

Section 7: Conclusions 34

Trang 4

List of Figures

Figure 1: Age distribution of cocoa farmers in Ben Tre 10

Figure 2: Educational level of Cocoa farmers in Ben Tre 11

Figure 3: Family size of cocoa farmers in Ben Tre 12

Figure 4: Occupations amongst cocoa farmers in Ben Tre 12

Figure 5: Sources of information for cocoa growers in Ben Tre 13

Figure 6: “Other” sources of information in Ben Tre 14

Figure 7: Distance to seedling buying point 14

Figure 8: Price paid for seedlings in Ben Tre 15

Figure 9: Time for seedlings to produce pods in Ben Tre 16

Figure 10: Average weekly pod production after planting 17

Figure 11: Farm size distribution in Ben Tre 17

Figure 12: Area planted to cocoa 18

Figure 13: Percent farm area planted to cocoa in Ben Tre survey 18

Figure 14: Trees planted on seventy five farms in Ben Tre 19

Figure 15: Newly planted farms in Ben Tre 20

Figure 16: Cocoa tree density 21

Figure 17: Method of selling cocoa crop in Ben Tre in 2006 27

Figure 18: Changes in method of selling cocoa in twenty five selected farmers 27

Figure 19: Companies sold to .28

Figure 20: Prices paid by major buyers 29

Figure 21: Buyers of pods in Ben Tre in 2006 & 2007 29

Figure 22: Average prices paid for fermented dried beans & pods 30

Figure 23: Average prices paid by different buyers in Ben Tre in 2006 & 2007 31

List of Tables Table 1: Farm size and area planted to cocoa in six selected farms in Dak Lak and Dak Nong 19

Table 2: Plantings of cocoa on seven selected farms in Dak Lak & Dak Nong provinces 21

Table 3: The average number of hectares under cocoa cultivation, percentage of farm under cocoa and average number of trees of different category of farmers 26

Table 4: Prices received by selling pods in VND/kg pod and VND/kg dry bean equivalent in Ben Tre in 2007 .32

Trang 5

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Ben Tre province is thanked for their assistance in farmer surveys and the selection of smallholder sites for solar dryer evaluation

Smilja Lambert of MARS, inc is thanked fro her assistance with project activities, her technical advice and liaison with the Vietnamese cocoa industry and research Institutes involved

Le Thi Tuyet of the World Cocoa Foundation, Sustainable Cocoa Development Program is thanked for her assistance and advice and organising fermentation and drying trials in Ben Tre and at Nong lam University Success Alliance is also thanked for their in providing information regarding the cocoa industry in Vietnam and

in the establishment of solar dryers and fermenting boxes at their demonstration farm sites in Ben Tre Province

Introduction

In 2006 the Collaboration for Agriculture & Rural Development (CARD) program approved a project on

“Fermentation and Drying and Quality Assessment of Cocoa in Vietnam” This was in response to the

Vietnamese Government’s intention of having10,000 hectares of cocoa planted by 2010 During the conduct of this project, projected plantings of cocoa, by the Vietnamese Agricultural Ministry, have changed this aim to 60,000 hectares by 2015 and 80,000 hectares by 2020 The government is pledging VND 40Billion in the country’s burgeoning cocoa trade Cocoa production is expected to be at 52,000 tonnes by 2015 and 108,000 tonnes by 2020 This would make Vietnam one of South East Asia’s largest cocoa producers with estimated annual revenue of $120M by 2020

An essential part of this plan is to refine cocoa fermentation and drying (processing) procedures, from other cocoa growing countries to suit the Vietnamese environmental and social conditions During this project,

experimentation has been conducted with fermentation and drying procedures and preferred methodologies established Adherence to these procedures will ensure a high quality cocoa, which should attract a premium price The adoption of solar driers was also expected to result in reduced labour and time inputs as well as an increased capacity of farmers to process their crop

In 2005 there was quite a large survey conducted by the SUCCESS Alliance project that included the size of farms in Ben Tre, number of cocoa trees, type of planting materials, number of households, the ways they are doing fermentations and also about the other crops that are grown in these farms (coconut, fruit trees, pineapple ) The study also included predictions about the combination of crops farmers could employ which produced the best income This survey was mainly related to what farmers were earning growing other crops and a theoretical prediction of what they could earn from intercropping with cocoa This CARD survey addressed only what farmers are making directly from cocoa and related issues In the follow-up survey in Ben Tre, there are a few discrepancies regarding gender, age, educational levels and number of family members with the 2006 survey This is possibly due to the person being interviewed and factors such as family members moving to other households Where a discrepancy occurs, the 2006 figure is used

Trang 6

This baseline survey should provide a useful guideline and reference It will help to ensure the best picture of the current situation and so be helpful in evaluating the impact of the CARD project on smallholder/cooperative farmers in Ben Tre and Western Highlands provinces

The survey was meant to address the following factors:

• Family/ village distribution of income and labour and associated social factors

• Industry factors such as transportation and marketing procedures

• Assessment of price and availability of materials required for fermentation boxes, solar driers and solar hot houses

• Assessment of most suitable locations for fermentation boxes and dryers for on-farm trials

• Participate in initial fermentation and drying trials This can be done at the research institute or at a nearby fermentary or village site, where the presently existing procedures are applied

• Village techniques and labour inputs re harvest., fermentation and drying and incomes received for it The survey was conducted in two stages Firstly a baseline survey was conducted of fifty farmers in Ben Tre and six in the Western Highlands in August 2006 Three farmers in Ben Tre and one in Dak Lak were then provided with solar driers and a follow up survey conducted in December 2007 In this manner, most of the issues to be addressed were met and an estimate of the impact of adoption of methodologies made

Trang 7

Section 1: List of Participants

Year surveyed

2006 2007

2 Nguyen Thi Kim Loan

6 Druong Van Tuong Binh Khanh

Tay

Trang 8

52 Nguyen Thi Dieu

Trang 9

(*)Given solar drier

Phuong & Ho Thi Hong Hue (*Large Dryer)

64 Nguyen Thi My

65 Nguyen Thi Thuy

Trang 10

Section 2: Farmer demographics

Gender

Ben Tre Province:

Because of the size of the budget & time restraints of staff from Can Tho University, a large survey could not

be conducted There are approximately 2000 cocoa farmers in Ben Tre Province therefore a survey of 50 of them can not be regarded as truly representative In the original survey conducted in July 2006, fifty farmers were asked to complete a questionnaire In November 2007 a follow-up survey was conducted Of the 50 farmers originally surveyed in Ben Tre, 25 were included in the follow-up Two of these farmers had solar dryers An additional twenty five farmers were also included in the survey One of these twenty five new farmers had been given a solar dryer This therefore increased the total number of farmers surveyed to seventy five which is hopefully more representative of impacts and attitudes to cocoa farming These additional farmers were within the vicinity of where solar dryers had been placed, so that they had some idea of the concept and were able to communicate with farmers regarding them

In the original survey, ten of the fifty farmers surveyed were women In the second survey, twelve of the new twenty five farmers were female So of seventy five farmers surveyed in all, twenty two (29%) were female

Can Tho Province:

In Can Tho province, there is only one substantial cocoa farmer, Huynh Kim Vinh and he was provided with a solar drier

Dak Lak and Dak Nong

A total of six farmers were surveyed in these two provinces and one was female This woman, Nguyen Thi Hue was supplied with a solar drier

Figure 1: Age distribution of cocoa farmers in Ben Tre

The fact that the 15-25 year age group made up only three percent of the total number of farmers may indicate a lack of interest in the age group in pursuing agriculture for an income The majority (78%) of farmers were aged over 41

Trang 11

In Can Tho province, there is only one substantial cocoa farmer, Huynh Kim Vinh who was born in 1930 He does have neighbours, who have some cocoa planted and sell pods to him or as fruit at markets These neighbours were considered to be too small producers to be included in the survey

In Dak Lak and Dak Nong, only six farmers were surveyed Of these, only two gave their ages and were both in the > 55 group (1947 & 1932)

2.3 Education level

Education levels were divided up into four categories: Elementary (grade 1-5), Secondary (grade 6-9), High school (grade 10-12) and tertiary (College upward)

Educational level Ben Tre 2006-2007

17, 23%

29, 38%

27, 36%

2, 3%

Elem entary Secondary High School Tertiary

Figure 2: Educational level of Cocoa farmers in Ben Tre

In Ben Tre, people who had done secondary, high school or tertiary, constituted 77% of farmers surveyed This indicates a fairly well educated population who should be able to comment on or adopt methodologies recommended

In Can Tho province, Huynh Kim Vinh (age 78) had elementary education but he has demonstrated himself to

be a person who is innovative and adopts recommendations readily

In Dak Lak and Dak Nong the only farmer who responded to the question was Nugyen Thi Hue who had high school education

2.4 Family size

Family sizes were divided into three categories of small, 1-2; medium, 3-5 and large, > 6 members

Trang 12

Family Size Ben Tre 2006-2007

4, 6%

44, 61%

24, 33%

1-2 m em bers 3-5 m em bers > 6 m em bers

In Ben Tre, families with 3-5 members constituted the largest segment at 61% Families with more than six members constituted 33% and families of 1-2 constituted only 6%

In Can Tho province, Huynh Kim Vinh had six family members These constituted himself and wife; a son, who is a teacher and a daughter who’s a nurse with two children

In Dak Lak and Dak Nong provinces there were two families of four; one with five and one with eight members

2.5 Occupation

Ben Tre Farmer Occuption 2006-2007

Trang 13

There were five different types of occupation that some participants had other than farming These included; animal husbandry, local government official, one photographer, one coffee shop owner and one insurance salesman The bulk of farmers surveyed (79%) had crop production as their sole source of income If that is combined with animal husbandry (15%), then ninety four percent of respondents had agricultural activities as their sole source of income

In Can Tho province, Huynh Kim Vinh and his wife only practiced farming His household members include a son, who is a teacher and a daughter who’s a nurse

In Dak Lak and Dak Nong, of the six farmers surveyed, two were local government officials and the other four had farming as a sole source of income

Section 3: Establishment of cocoa

3.1 Sources of information on growing cocoa

Ben Tre Province

Source of information

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Figure 5: Sources of information for cocoa growers in Ben Tre

The survey of fifty farmers in August 2006 followed by twenty five farmers from the 2006 survey plus 25 newly surveyed farmers demonstrates a shift in obtaining information towards the category of “other” The category “Other” consists of; local government officials, Nong Lam University/ Success Alliance/ Mars, farmers clubs and newspapers

During the 2007 survey of fifty farmers, twenty stated that their source of information had changed since 2006 and thirty reported no change Farmers frequently stated more than one source of information

Trang 14

"Other" sources of information

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Figure 6: “Other” sources of information in Ben Tre

Changes in farmer’s source of information are illustrated in figure six Local government officials have tended

to play a major role in dissemination of information in 2006 and 2007 The Success Alliance/MARS/NLU program was been the second largest source in 2006 followed by farmers clubs In 2007, the influence of the SA/ MARS/ NLU program had grown as had farmers clubs, which are now an equivalent source of information It should be noted that information coming from local government officials and farmers clubs has originated from the Success Alliance program

Can Tho Province

Mr Nam Vinh is unusual in that he started growing cocoa in 1985 Success Alliance is not active in Can Tho and he only lists a book (French) as a source of information He reported no change in information between

2006 and 2007

With the six farmers in these provinces, all of them listed TV as a source of information Five listed radio, four listed local government official, two listed neighbour and one listed a book as sources of information All of them stated that there had been no change in sources between 2006 and 2007

3.2 Purchasing of cocoa seedlings

3.2.1 Distance to travel to purchase seedlings

Distance to seedling buying point

Trang 15

The distance the seventy five farmers, surveyed in 2006 & 2007, have to travel to purchase seedlings is presented above Only seven out of fifty, farmers could purchase seedlings closer in 2007 than 2006 Three of these obtained seedlings from NLU and two were breeding themselves Two were obtaining seedlings from local government outlets As twenty five percent of farmers have to travel more than eleven kilometres to purchase seedlings, there seems to be room for improvement in the location of seedling nurseries

The one farmer had to travel sixty kilometres to Ben Tre province to purchase seedlings, suggesting that Can Tho province does need nurseries for farmer’s requirements if the crop is ever to be established in that province

Dak Lak and Dak Nong Provinces

In Dak Lak and Dak Nong all farmers reported having to travel over sixty kilometres to WASI to purchase seedlings There is therefore a need to establish nurseries closer to farmers in these provinces

3.2.2 Prices paid for seedlings

Prices of Seedlings Ben Tre

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

Figure 8: Price paid for seedlings in Ben Tre

With the fifty farmers surveyed in 2006, one farmer was propagating his own seedlings and one had received seedlings free from Nong Lam University These two farmers were omitted from the data In 2006, the average price of seedlings was VND3981 and in 2007, VND3815 Therefore, only a slight decrease if any, had happened Of the fifty farmers who were surveyed in 2007, 14 reported a decrease in price and forty four, no change in price

Mr Nguyen Kim Vinh did not report any change in prices This is probably due to his age and having an established farm, with no requirements for more planting

Trang 16

Prices in these provinces varied between VND12000 – 3500 in 2006 and generally hadn’t changed by 2007 With three of the six farmers, they didn’t know what the price of seedlings were, probably due to having established farms with no further plantings in 2006 & 2007

The status of the distance farmers have to travel to obtain seedlings and prices being charged does suggest there is some room for improvement in the number and location of seedling nurseries in all provinces surveyed Distances to travel and price of seedlings could be an impediment to farmers wishing to grow cocoa

3.3 Labour and time inputs for planting seedlings

Obtaining quantifiable data on labour, time inputs and costs for planting cocoa seedlings proved difficult to obtain from farmers For the sake of this survey, it will be assumed that these factors are similar to that of the other two main cash crops i.e coconut, longans and other fruits Only prices paid for seedlings will be taken into account in later economic evaluation of cocoa growing

In a similar manner, there has been no attempt to quantify how much pre-existing crop of longans, other fruit and coconut are displaced for the sake of planting cocoa

3.4 Time for production of pods

Time for seedlings to produce pods

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Figure 9: Time for seedlings to produce pods in Ben Tre

Figure 9 demonstrates that, for the majority of farmers, seedlings take from 19 to 24 months to grow to produce pods

Trang 17

3.5 Pod production with time

Pod production

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

2 years 3 years 4 years

Years after planting

Average pods per w eek

Figure 10: Average weekly pod production after planting

Figure ten demonstrates that weekly pod production was still increasing on the seventy five selected farms in Ben Tre, four years after planting Most of the farms surveyed had not had plantings prior to four years ago and

it remains to be seen how long peak production will go on for In other countries, cocoa usually peaks in production after three years, stays at that level for several years and then slowly declines When a decline in production occurs, it’s followed by new plantings or grafting From the figures generated in this survey,

farmer’s income from cocoa could be expected to peak four years after planting seedlings

Section 4: Farm Demographics

4.1 Size of farm and area planted to cocoa

In the follow-up survey, it was frequently found that farmers gave different estimates of both the size of their farms and the area planted to cocoa This is probably due to both factors not being accurately known or the possibility of another family member answering the questionnaire

Number of Farms in various size ranges (ha) & % in size

Tiêu đề	Cocoa fermentation and drying and quality assessment in Vietnam
Trường học	Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development
Thể loại	báo cáo
Năm xuất bản	2006 & 2007
Thành phố	Hà Nội

Định dạng
Số trang	34
Dung lượng	235,62 KB