Economic performance of coffee and pepper intercropping in Quang Hiep commune, Cumgar district, Dak Lak province

peer reviewedCoffee and pepper are key crops generating income and employment for farmers in the Central Highlands. The intercropping of the two crops has been practiced recently by farmers and this has initially shows to be a good production system. The study was designed to evaluate economic performance of coffee and pepper intercropping in Quang Hiep commune, CuMgar district, Dak Lak province, and propose key recommendations to improve the economic performance of the system. In-depth interviews with 50 farm households were conducted, evaluated using descriptive and comparative statistics. The results show that the average area of intercropping is estimated at about 1.5 ha/ farm household. On average, an hectare of intercropping produces about 2.76 tons of coffee and 1.51 tons of pepper, generating about 203 million VND/ha for households during the crop season 2014-2015. The intercropping system is proved to be more economically efficient than the mono – system. Economic performance of the intercropping system was found to be different households and depended on the production scale, irrigation status, seed quality, gender, ethnicity and farmers’ technical know-how. The production system now faces other obstacles, such as crop disease and pests, changing weather, input and output market, market information. Key recommendations to improve economic performance of the coffee- pepper intercropping in Quang Hiep commune are proposed accordingly