Ethnic minorities’ intercropping adoption in coffee farming in Vietnam: public demand and farmers’ adoption decision

Poor ethnic minorities are highly concentrated in Central Highland, the coffee hub of Vietnam.

Coffee intercropping systems, which integrate coffee with other crop species, have great potential to improve their livelihood, climate resilience, and the sustainability of their land use.

However, their intercropping adoption is limited and there is little scientific evidence about their constraints in practising intercropping.

This project aims to analyse ethnic minority farmers’ intercropping adoption in coffee farming in Vietnam to support their poverty reduction and their transition towards sustainable farming.

The specific objectives are to 1) estimate public demand for ecosystem services provided by coffee intercropping systems, 2) investigate factors influencing ethnic minorities’ coffee intercropping adoption, 3) examine the effects of intercropping adoption on their income and possibilities for pesticide reduction, and 4) identify their preferences for different intercropping systems.

Choice experiments, psychometric insight, and impact assessment tools will be applied.

This project integrates knowledge from psychology, ecology, agronomy, agricultural economics, and environmental science to reflect the social, psychological, economic, and environmental components of intercropping adoption.

Research findings will inform agricultural policies in Vietnam and other developing countries, where intercropping adoption in perennial crop systems has not been established.