Crop Nutrition for Vietnamese Robusta Coffee

Sustainable Production of Robusta Coffee under a Changing Climate: A 10-Year Monitoring of Fertilizer Management in Coffee Farms in Vietnam and Indonesia

“…Compared to countries such as Thailand, or Philippines [32], coffee farmers in Vietnam are applying noticeably higher rates of fertilizers. The general trend of overusing fertilizers found in this study was in line with the conclusions from previous studies [13,19,26,32,34], although in these studies only one or two provinces were involved.…”

“…Maximum temperatures were normally above 24 • C, and the average monthly solar radiation ranged from 428 to 698 MJ m −2 . Two main soils in the Central Highlands region are reddish-yellow acrisols and reddish-brown ferrosols, with coffee trees are cultivated mostly on the latter [13,26].…”

“…Chemical fertilizers such blended NPK when applied intensively over long periods could also cause the depletion, or accumulation, of other plant nutrients in the soil [43]. This could lead to reduced yields and production [13,44,45].…”

“…It has been estimated that the major nutrients removed in one ton of coffee green beans may be 33-63 kg N, 2-11 kg P 2 O 5 and 47-67 kg K 2 O depending on soil type and fertilizer application [7,8,[10][11][12]. In the Central Highlands of Vietnam, the nutrient removal from Robusta coffee farms has been estimated to average 33 kg N, 1 kg P 2 O 5 and 30 kg K 2 O for each ton per hectare of green beans harvested (ignoring nutrient losses from leaching and erosion) [13].…”

“…The total coffee area has risen from around 22,000 ha in 1980 to around 665,000 ha by 2017 [16,22]. Although the total Vietnamese coffee area has increased by only 33% over the last 14 years (2004-2017) [16], the trend is likely to be on expanding producing areas, but with the potential effect of imbalanced fertilizer application [13,19]. Similar future prospects could be noted for Indonesian coffee sector [23,24].…”