The gardens grown in Dak Nong are not afraid of drought thanks to the canopy of forest trees

Mr. Pham Ngoc’s family, in Nhan Co commune, Dak R’lap district, has 4 hectares of pepper cultivated in a natural way, creating a fairly stable ecology in the context of the severe drought situation.

In Mr. Ngoc’s pepper garden, there is a system of forest trees that shade and block the surrounding wind. The shade tree is also a living pillar for the family’s pepper tree to climb and cling to. The type of forest tree used by Mr. Ngoc is mainly the cassia tree.

“The drought situation in the dry season months in Dak Nong province is becoming more and more severe, water sources are also becoming scarce. The family planting cassia trees to block the wind and shade pepper trees is proving the “Effective and beneficial in many aspects. Every year, this tree system helps my family save most of the cost of watering plants and the crop yield is also stable at more than 3 tons/hectare” – Mr. Ngoc affirmed.

Similarly, currently, in the coffee capital of Dak Nong province (Dak Mil district) there are thousands of hectares affected by drought because there is no water for irrigation for the 4th and 5th periods. However, the coffee garden is large. More than 1.2 hectares of Doan Thanh’s family, in Thuan An commune, Dak Mil district, has just been irrigated for the third time but is still lush and green, effectively resisting drought.

The reason for such a difference is because in Mr. Thanh’s family’s garden there are many perennial trees such as jackfruit, cassia, wild poinciana… that can shade the coffee trees. These intercropped crops were planted by Mr. Thanh’s family more than 20 years ago. Currently, the above trees are all very large and can provide good shade and wind protection for low-altitude coffee trees.

According to Mr. Thanh, thanks to the shade tree system, the temperature of the family’s coffee garden is always cooler than in gardens without. Shade trees and windbreaks have created a stable garden ecosystem, less water evaporation, and better maintained moisture and nutrients in the soil.

Another special thing is that thanks to the shade and wind-blocking tree system, Mr. Thanh can save irrigation water, materials, and labor. “There are jackfruit trees, wild phoenix trees, black cassia trees… providing shade and wind protection, so in the family’s coffee garden it always feels like the temperature is a few degrees Celsius lower than outside” – Mr. Thanh said. more.

According to the Central Highlands Agricultural and Forestry Science and Technology Institute (WASI), drought has caused crops such as coffee, pepper, and cashew to encounter difficulties in pollination, low fruiting rates, and reduced productivity. capacity. Many other crops also affect growth and are at risk of crop failure.

In addition, changes in weather with warming trends make harmful pests and diseases develop quickly and are difficult to predict. Warming due to thermal radiation also causes plants’ need for water to increase. If any garden has shade trees or windbreaks, it will reduce drought.

Appropriate density of shade trees not only has little impact on coffee and pepper productivity but also helps stabilize the quality of agricultural products over the years, limiting the phenomenon of good harvests and bad years. In the context of climate change, this is something that farmers in the Central Highlands provinces should apply and replicate for more effective cultivation of long-term industrial crops.