Vegetable and flower production in the central highlands of Vietnam: Current status and perspective strategies

. Unstable 
prices and oversupply or limited access to 
markets remained major barriers for producers 
on the way to expand their farm size. Meanwhile, 
the solutions for vegetable and flower market and 
brand development by local authorities have not 
been paid much attention nor adopted 
effectively. 
Discussion 
This study is one of the first to 
comprehensively assess the current situation of 
vegetable and flower production in terms of 
production land, yields, quantity, economic 
efficiencies, negative impacts of pests/diseases 
on such plants, and applications of technological 
advances at all five provinces of the Central 
Highlands of Vietnam. The findings provided 
significant policy recommendations and practical 
implications for both local governments and 
stakeholders in these sectors. 
Some prior studies either focused on land 
use, water use (i.e., in coffee), or drought crisis 
in the Central Highlands (Minh, 2017; CCAFS-
SEA, 2016), while others only provided 
information on vegetables and/or flowers in a 
typical location such as Da Lat city, Lam Dong 
(Bui Quang Tuan, 2016; Danse et al., 2007). The 
lack of a general evaluation limits 
recommendations policies and solutions for the 
development of vegetables and flowers in the 
whole Central Highlands. Our findings indicate 
that there was a significant difference in the 
production area, yields, and economic efficiency 
among the five provinces of the Central 
Highlands. Vegetables were mainly grown in 
Lam Dong, Dak Lak, and Gia Lai provinces, but 
the farmers in Lam Dong achieved the highest 
yield and economic efficiency. In other words, 
vegetables and flowers were the most 
economically produced in Lam Dong province, 
which is similar to several reports (Bui Quang 
Tuan, 2016; Danse et al., 2007). Meanwhile, the 
majority of flower areas were in Lam Dong 
province, others’ accounted for very minor. This 
implies that vegetable and flower producers in 
other provinces should pay more attention to 
improving the yields and economic values of 
these crops. 
Other scholars introduced the overall 
development of vegetables in Vietnam 
nationwide, but only placed an emphasis on the 
Red River Delta (i.e., Hanoi city) (Huong et al., 
2013, Ngo et al., 2019). Besides that, these 
existing works did not evaluate the negative 
impacts of insects and diseases on the growth of 
vegetables and flowers (Bui Quang Tuan, 2016; 
Huong et al., 2013; Ngo et al., 2019). In this 
study, we identified the popularity and harmful 
seriousness of insects and diseases on vegetable 
and flower production across five provinces in 
the Central Highlands. Therefore, both producers 
and technical training provided by local 
government agencies are suggested to efficiently 
monitor and evaluate these negative effects on 
such crops caused by these insects and diseases. 
Moreover, little is known about growing 
techniques and technological advances that the 
farmers and producers applied in vegetable and 
flower production in this region. Our results 
revealed that these crop producers remained 
limited in applying modern water irrigation, 
flowering treatments, crop breeding, and post-
harvest preservation technology, except for a few 
big producers in Lam Dong. This may explain 
why many producers attained low yields and 
economic values. 
Vu Quynh Hoa et al. (2020) 
https://vjas.vnua.edu.vn/ 781 
In addition to assessing the production and 
economic efficiency of flower and vegetable 
production in the Central Highlands, this work 
has found the most difficulties facing the 
producers and farmers, which has not been 
pointed out by previous work. Specifically, 
output market issues (i.e., fluctuations in market 
prices and instability in output markets) were the 
most barriers and most concerns to the farmers in 
the areas. This is consistent with what has been 
found in previous study of Ngo et al. (2019) 
which was conducted in Hanoi city in the North 
of Vietnam. Thus, essential solutions for 
improving the ability to access new domestic and 
export markets that need to be concentrated on 
include building brands of high-value vegetables 
and flowers or improving product quality 
through modern technological advances. These 
solutions were also recommended by prior 
work/reports (Decision No. 936 of the Prime 
Minister, 2012; JICA, 2017). Apart from market 
factors, the negative impact of climate change 
(i.e., drought) was also a big challenge for plant 
growers, which is in accordance with other 
findings reported by Bui Quang Tuan (2016) and 
Thai (2018). The upgradation of the irrigation 
system for such crops is needed as 70% of 
cultivation areas experienced severe drought 
(CCAFS-SEA, 2016). 
This study found that vegetable and flower 
production played important roles in improving 
the likelihood of the Central Highlands’ people, 
especially in Lam Dong province as suggested by 
previous scholars (Bui Quang Tuan, 2016; Danse 
et al., 2007). However, many challenges hinder 
the development of this area such as the negative 
impacts of climate change, deforestation, and 
natural depletion, which is similar to a recent 
report by Thai (2018). To solve this problem, it 
requires a comprehensive evaluation of the 
current situation of agricultural production in 
relation to climate change that is rapidly 
increasing in the region. 
Based on the above findings, we propose 
policy recommendations to promote the 
development of the flower and vegetable 
industry in the Central Highlands region as 
follows: First, producers need to improve the 
yields of vegetables in the areas (i.e., Dak Lak 
and Dak Nong) where current yields remain 
much lower compared to those in Lam Dong 
province. The yield improvement can be done 
through technical training activities and the 
application of new seed varieties and modern 
technologies. Second, the supply of irrigation 
water for vegetable production is very important, 
which requires the participation and support of 
the local government as well as cooperations and 
benefit-sharing among vegetable/flower 
producers and businesses. Third, the local 
governments should support private stakeholders 
in building and developing brands of high-value 
flowers and vegetables. Fourth, it is crucial to 
expand markets for high-value flower and 
vegetable products through trade promotion 
activities and providing market information more 
widely to producers and businesses. Fifth, 
support policies for credit, innovating breeding 
technologies, and post-harvest preservation 
should be implemented more efficiently. These 
policies require close cooperation among all 
stakeholders (local government, producers, 
businesses, and research institutions) in the 
vegetable and flower supply chains in the Central 
Highlands. 
Nevertheless, this study still has some main 
limitations. First, deep analyses of the main types 
of flowers and vegetables in each province have 
not been addressed, which limits to propose 
specific solutions for major crops in the Central 
Highlands. Second, surveys of other stakeholders 
in the supply chain of flowers and vegetables 
such as processors, retailers, and consumers are 
missing. Finally, factors affecting economic 
efficiency and the application of production 
technology based on quantitative methods or 
econometric models remain absent. Thus, further 
research should be focused on exploring factors 
affecting the development of main flower and 
vegetable varieties in terms of economic and 
technical aspects through surveying all the 
supply chain actors. 
Conclusions 
Overall, the development of vegetables and 
flowers in the Central Highlands’ provinces has 
brought many economic benefits to producers, 
Vegetable and flower production in the Central Highlands of Vietnam: Current status and perspective strategies 
782 Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences 
especially in Lam Dong province. However, the 
growers in this area have also been facing many 
difficulties and challenges in both production and 
consumption. Production technology and 
technological advances for vegetable production 
remain limited in terms of water and fertilizer 
application systems, seed breeding techniques, 
and post-harvest preservation. Despite that, the 
biggest problems perceived by producers are the 
output market and price instability. In addition, 
the negative impact of climate change (i.e., 
drought), soil degradation, and the shortage of 
water sources for plant cultivation are also big 
obstacles for vegetable and flower production in 
the region. 
Acknowledgments 
This study was financially supported by the 
Vietnamese government for the National project 
Applied Research for Technology Development 
(Reference Number: 02/KHCN- DTDL.CN-
18/18). The authors would like to acknowledge 
the help of the local leaders, officials, businesses, 
and farmers in the five surveyed provinces 
(including Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Gia Lai, Kon 
Tum, and Lam Dong) in the Central Highlands of 
Vietnam. 
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