Polysulphate Increases Profit for Coffee Growers

Significant increases in yield and quality are achieved when Polysulphate fertilizer is introduced into the fertilizer program for coffee crops in Vietnam.

Coffee Crop Needs a Boost

Vietnam is the second largest coffee producing nation, second only to Brazil. In Vietnam, as coffee production has increase, soil health and fertility have deteriorated in many areas meaning crop nutrition is now key to improving productivity.

Petrovietnam Fertilizer and Chemicals Corporation (PVFCCo) has an important role in advising on fertilizer recommendations for farmers, as part of this role they compared current common, or traditional, fertilizer use (urea with a local blend of Ca, Mg and P) with the use of a locally available composite fertilizer (including S but not Ca and Mg), and the use of the composite fertilizer plus Polysulphate.

Ca and Mg have a significant influence on coffee crop production. S appears to facilitate N uptake and metabolism by the coffee plants. Understanding the relationships between soil minerals and between the minerals and the plant has been deepened by this research.

Counting the Impact of Polysulphate

In the districts in Lam Dong region in southeastern Vietnam, where the research took place, the use of composite fertilizer improved profitability. But the biggest improvement was seen in the plots where Polysulphate was used alongside the composite fertilizer. In these plots, Polysulphate increased productivity of the coffee plants by up to 11.5%, and profits of the farmer improved by up to 14%.

References

The article Polyhalite Application Improves Coffee (Coffea robusta) Yield and Quality in Vietnam is published in e-ifc No. 47 by the International Potash Institute.