Sustainable intensification: how grafting boosts coffee production in Vietnam

Improved crop varieties have been crucial in enhancing productivity, food security and resilience against biotic and abiotic stressors. While this has been investigated in annual staple crops, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of vegetative propagation methods such as grafting remains scarce. This paper presents the first empirical evidence on the yield performance of grafting in coffee, one of the most traded commodities globally, which supports the livelihood of millions of smallholder farmers. We estimate a log-linearized Cobb-Douglas production function using plot-level data from 1,321 coffee plots in four provinces in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. To address potential selection bias in adoption, we apply an instrumental variable approach. The results show that coffee grafting increases yield by 61%, and findings are robust to alternative model specifications, production function assumptions, and estimation strategies. Given the impacts of climate change on coffee production and predictions showing substantial decrease in yield and coffee-suitable land, practical and easily scalable agricultural technologies such as grafting could play crucial roles in ensuring coffee supply and sustaining smallholder farmers’ livelihood. Our findings provide important policy implications, highlighting the need for agricultural extension services, training programs, and institutional support to promote the adoption of grafting as a pathway to climate-resilient livelihoods and long-term agricultural sustainability.