Success Stories

Family Expects Income to Triple with First Cocoa Harvest

Over the years, husband and wife Hua Van Nghiep and Luong Thi Van, both 45, supplemented their income by growing one cash crop—cashews—on their 1.5 hectare farm. Unfortunately, cashews do not earn a competitive market price, and the couple’s harvests were only generating earnings of about $600–$900 each year. Faced with a difficult economic situation, the couple feared cashew prices would remain low, threatening their financial stability. At the same time, they were uncertain of new crop options because the soil where they live in Vietnam’s Ea Kar District of Dak Lak province is too poor to grow more profitable crops like coffee and rubber.

Hua Van Nghiep tends to his cocoa trees. He and his wife Luong Thi Van hope to triple their income from their cocoa harvest this year.

In 2007 Nghiep (pictured) and Van heard about the SUCCESS Alliance program, which helps smallholders in the Dak Lak province grow cocoa, which is well suited to the area. Unlike coffee and rubber, cocoa does not require rich soil or a high initial investment, and it yields stable, high prices.

The couple decided to join one of the project’s local cocoa clubs to diversify their crops and earn more money. They received 200 cocoa trees and participated in trainings on best practices in growing cocoa.

Today, the impact of the SUCCESS Alliance is evident. Because Nghiep and Van intercrop the cocoa trees with their cashew trees, they do not have to sacrifice earnings from the original cash crop. This year, to increase their cocoa harvest, they bought an additional 300 cocoa seedlings with their own money. Once they begin harvesting cocoa, Nghiep and Van anticipate earning between $2,300 and $3,000 per year.

With the extra cash, their family will enjoy increased financial stability and will be able to pay for the renovation of their home. As Van explains, “We follow others’ success and hope for the best. We can only make decisions as they come.”

Female Facilitator is Successful Training Facilitator, Successful Single Mother

At the monthly SUCCESS Alliance training facilitator (TF) meeting in the Dak Lak province of Vietnam’s Central Highlands, 40-year-old H’Bim Buon Krong is sharp and focused. The first to speak, she precisely quotes her cocoa club figures without having to glance at her notes. As a member of the M’nong ethnic group, H'Bim has emerged as a spokesperson for the M’nong TFs in the room, who describe her as determined, respected and organized. She has to be: She manages three cocoa clubs, a shading tree seedling business and her own farm—and she is a single mother of two.

Through the SUCCESS Alliance, H'Bim has become a successful training facilitator, community leader and business woman.

Her motivation as a trainer and entrepreneur is simple. H’Bim says, “Rice isn’t enough to raise children.” Because the soil is poor in the area where her community lives, farmers have not been able to plant high-value cash crops such as coffee or rubber. Instead they are only able to plant corn or cassava, which return a low profit. However, the soil is sufficient for cocoa and since cocoa does not need rich soil or require a high initial cash investment, it is a good crop for smallholders such as H’Bim to grow.

H’Bim says her life changed dramatically for the better last year when she became involved with the SUCCESS Alliance, which is a public-private partnership consisting of USAID, USDA, the World Cocoa Foundation, Mars, Inc., and ACDI/VOCA. Through her training, H’Bim has become a leader and problem solver in her community, which is significant considering the traditionally low social status of women in Vietnam.

In March 2007, H’Bim was nominated by her local commune to be considered for the SUCCESS Alliance training of trainers (TOT) program. She performed well at the TOT academy, and, following a solid performance review, became an official TF. As a new TF, she was charged with recruiting 40 farmers to form a cocoa club where she would give trainings on cocoa cultivation techniques such as pruning, fertilizing and shading.

At the beginning of 2008, SUCCESS Alliance expanded its program in Vietnam, adding five new cocoa clubs. Because of her impressive abilities, H’Bim was offered the opportunity to manage two of the new clubs in addition to the one from last year.

When she is not conducting her trainings, she consults with farmers on an individual basis. Quick to pick up on SUCCESS Alliance’s teachings, H’Bim has set an example for her fellow farmers. For example, she used the few hundred grams of shade tree seeds she received from SUCCESS Alliance to produce more. Filling a gap in the market, she is now the primary shade seedling supplier to other cocoa-growing farmers in her commune. Not only has it made a significant difference to other farmers, it has brought her additional income to buy input materials for her rice paddies and to support her family.

Enthusiastic about the future, H’Bim has high hopes for both herself and the Central Highlands cocoa industry. “Until I became educated, I never knew it was possible for my life to change. I used to be all bones. I couldn’t leave the house. Now I can help my commune and teach technical skills,” she said.

By teaching others how to create more sustainable livelihood options with cocoa, H’Bim is helping improve her community—one workshop at a time.

After a Lifetime of Hardship, a Woman Finds Sweet Rewards in Cocoa
Applying techniques learned through SUCCESS Alliance training Nam Suong of Ben Tre Province ferments and dries cocoa for other farmers in the region, substantially increasing her income

Nam Suong is well known in the Vietnamese cocoa community of An Khanh Commune, Chau Thanh District, Ben Tre Province as a pioneer cocoa planter who runs a thriving cocoa bean fermenting business. Though soft spoken and modest, she speaks with quiet pride about her thriving cocoa business, through which she supports her family. Suong built the business through her hard work and with the help of the USAID-funded SUCCESS Alliance program.

Suong dries and ferments cocoa pods, processing over 12 tons of fresh pods per month

Even though her future now looks bright, for much of her life, Suong struggled with tremendous challenges. During the second Indochina War, she and her family took refuge in Cambodia. After the war, she worked briefly in Ho Chi Minh City and then returned to cultivate a small plot of land in Ben Tre with her husband, who was a war veteran and an invalid. They later moved to a small coconut farm (0.2 ha) in Ben Tre Province in the Mekong Delta. For the next 25 years, Suong, her husband and their children barely managed to meet their daily needs on the income from the coconut grove and any additional odd-job income she could earn.

In 2002 Suong heard that there was demand for a new product in her province, cocoa, and that this could be intercropped with the coconut trees on her farm. She began planting cocoa immediately and in 2004 she joined the SUCCESS Alliance. Through the SUCCESS Alliance, she participated in trainings to learn about cocoa cultivation and post-harvest and fermenting techniques. Three years after planting, the cocoa trees began to bear fruit and her family’s income also began to grow. Applying what she learned in trainings, Suong perfected a method of fermenting small amounts of beans in baskets. The surrounding cocoa farmers found this difficult to do themselves and were happy to sell her their fresh pods instead. Suong steadily increased the volume of beans she fermented while being careful to achieve a consistent and high-quality product.

Suong has ensured her family’s financial stability and established her name in the Ben Tre cocoa industry through her innovation and hard work. She humbly says that she is proud to be a “successful business woman in her commune, and cocoa has given her the opportunity to prove herself.” Indeed, Suong has proven that despite a lifetime of hardship, she still can find hope and success.

Expanding Cocoa Cultivation
Trinh Van Thanh leads efforts in Xa Bang

Mr. Trinh Van Thanh is a cocoa pioneer. He first heard about the money-making possibilities of cocoa from Nong Lam University (NLU) in 2001. With support from the World Cocoa Foundation, NLU wanted to introduce cocoa cultivation to farmers in Xa Bang, a commune in the coastal province of Ba Ria Vung Tau, where Thanh lived. Thanh was key in inviting farmers to early meetings and trainings and immediately began planting cocoa on his 0.8 ha plot of land. He was so dedicated that he attended any and all cocoa related meetings and training events, even those that required him to travel 2-3 hours on a bus at his own expense.

Trinh Van Thanh and wife (second and third from left) with Tracey Duffey and Le Thi Tuyet of WCF

NLU was so impressed with the Xa Bang farmers’ early interest in cocoa and Thanh’s organizational ability that they recommended Xa Bang as a focus area for SUCCESS Alliance program. SUCCESS began working in Xa Bang in 2004 and Thanh immediately took on a leadership role as a training facilitator, leading a cocoa club of 40 farmers to plant, grow and ferment cocoa. By 2005, he had become a local cocoa expert and newer farmers frequently called upon him with questions. Cocoa cultivation had expanded from a handful of farmers in 2001 to include 775 households, which was largely due to Thanh’s leadership.

Mr. Thanh continues to expand the services he provides to farmers. He has converted part of his pepper farm into a nursery, where he produces tens of thousands of grafted, clonal cocoa seedlings for sale to local farmers. He has set up a small fermentory and he has constructed a small warehouse to become the commune’s first cocoa buying station. In addition, he is grinding cocoa beans at home that he sells to a local coffee roaster for Xa Bang’s own style of Café Mocha!

Successful Cocoa Cultivation Leads to Increased Income
Tran Hung Son's life and that of his family, greatly improved

As a result of his involvement in the SUCCESS Alliance program, Mr. Tran Hung Son has seen his life and that of his family greatly improve over the past three years. Son first experimented with cocoa in 1999; however the trees did not grow well and were unproductive due to poor planting material. In 2002, the cocoa team at Nong Lam University (NLU) grafted 14 commercial and 7 local clones onto the unproductive trees and Son eagerly attended training offered by NLU. Within just 8 months, all the grafted branches were heavy with pods. Since becoming successful in cocoa production, Son has increased his income by selling budwood, grafted seedlings, fresh cocoa pods and cocoa beans, and his family's life has changed for the better. In 2002 Son’s house was only partially constructed with a dirt floor and no windows, and Son could not afford medicine for his son’s neural ailment leading to expensive trips to Ho Chi Minh City for treatment.  As of 2006, Son completed the construction of his house and his son is doing much better now that Son can afford the necessary medication. Son’s success is obvious to all who know and visit him, and many do since his farm is a model farm for the SUCCESS Alliance program.

With training and support from the SUCESS Alliance program, Tran Hung Son is selling budwood, grafted seedlings, fresh cocoa pods and cocoa beans , and his family's life has changed for the better.

Cocoa Growing Sweetened by Entrepreneurial Spirit
SUCCESS started cocoa development in Ba Ria Vung Tau, now entrepreneur leads it

In April 2005 in the province of Ba Ria Vung Tau, Ly Hong Hai was assigned by his employer at the Agriculture and Extension Center (AEC) to manage the SUCCESS Alliance-funded cocoa nursery. Hai had no experience in growing cocoa, much less in running a nursery to produce 200,000 grafted cocoa seedlings. He soon realized that he would need some help and solicited assistance of the SUCCESS Alliance. The Alliance invested a great deal of time and technical resources to make Hai’s nursery successful, since the establishment of nurseries is an important component of the project. With the Alliance's help, the nursery produced grafted clonal cocoa seedlings in large numbers in Ba Ria Vung Tau province for the first time.

Hai is organizing the training facilitators to buy all the fresh pods from farmers in their clubs, and those facilitators will sell them on to Hai for fermentation and drying. This service of fresh pod buying and fermentation is filling an important role in the nascent cocoa industry of Ba Ria Vung Tau. In doing so, Hai is creating an opportunity for profit while furthering growth and business development in the emerging cocoa sector in Vietnam.

Cocoa Brings New Markets, Confidence
Intercropping cocoa trees gives small farmers new crop options

Mixed cocoa cropping improves land fertility and water and soil conservation. But while cocoa trees have been grown in southern Vietnam for years, it had never developed into a major cash crop. The lack of production expertise and an accessible market for cocoa beans constrained the cocoa’s development and limited farmers’ confidence in their ability to grow the crop successfully.

To encourage the growth of Vietnam’s cocoa industry, and to promote the prosperity of small cocoa farmers, USAID launched the Sustainable Cocoa Extension Services for Smallholders Alliance — the SUCCESS Alliance. Operating from Ba Ria Vung Tau and Ben Tre Provinces, the SUCCESS Alliance provides quality cocoa seedlings to more than 2,000 farmers and shows them sound production techniques. The SUCCESS Alliance’s close links with major chocolate manufacturers around the world has also strengthened farmers’ market network.