No abstract

Dak Lak province, Central Highlands, Vietnam presents an interesting case in perennial crop systems, of which coffee and black pepper are the two premier commodities and contribute a large part to economic growth provincially and at the national level. In recent years, in addition to mono-cropping systems, intercropping systems for diversification have developed quickly. This paper focuses on (1) comparing the economic efficiency of mono-coffee systems (MCSes), mono-pepper systems (MPSes), and coffee and pepper intercropping (CPI) by analyzing startup cost, annual cost, and profits; and (2) identifying the main factors affecting farmers’ decisions to convert their crop systems. The study was carried out by investigating 90 perennial crop samples using the three perennial crop systems (MCSes, MPSes, and CPI) in 2017–2018. Additionally, in-depth interviews and focus group discussion (FGD) methods were applied to collect more information about the operations of each system. Another survey with 37 samples (new plantations) was carried out to compute the startup cost. The findings showed evidence that MCSes had the lowest startup and annual costs, whereas MPSes had the highest costs of the three perennial crop systems. MCSes used less manure or compost in the initial setup and overused chemical fertilizer in annual production. Similarly, MPSes had high pesticide-stimulant costs in the production process to sustain crop development. The study indicated that CPI not only had the highest economic efficiency, but also created the best family employment opportunities of the three systems. Additionally, the study found some social factors that strongly influenced farmers’ decisions to shift their cropping system: These included ethnicity, education, training, and crop failure, in addition to economic factors (profits).

There is a great consensus about the crucial role of perennial crops in an agricultural economy of a country. The paper aims (1) to identify the differences in the costs and profits of perennial crops produced by two study groups, a group producing coffee (GpC) and a group producing pepper (GpP) over two crop years 2016/2017-2017/2018; (2) evaluate the evolution of the economic performance of each group during two years; and (3) examine factors influencing the farm profitability. By using the mixed data from a household survey conducted in three sub-regions of Dak Lak province, Vietnam, a financial verification is used to explore the economic incentives between two groups and a discriminant analysis is undertaken to classify the determinants of the farm profitability. The results perform that the GpC is generally lower input costs and economic benefits than the GpP. The decrease of economic indicators of the GpP during two years, meanwhile, is more significant than that of the GpC in the same period. In addition, the GpP is likely to invest more inputs, heavily use chemical cost, be more susceptible to pests and diseases, and the volatile market conditions in comparison to the GpC. Categorically, the variable cost and reduction rate in terms of valueadded, net farm income (NFI), profit, labor productivity, and the ratio of NFI to family labor of the GpC have lower than those of the GpP, respectively, during two years. Furthermore, in similarly conditional practices, the perennial crop farms generate different returns depending on experience, training, other income, and gross outputs. The findings provide information for farmers to make accurate decision about coffee and pepper farms production as recommended by reducing the quantity of fertilizers, allocating resources and diversifying crop systems. Additionally, the empirical results also offer policymakers the farms sustainable development at local and national levels. Going forward, authors suggest these factors be considered in the future.