Balancing biodiversity and profitability: pathways to sustainable robusta coffee production in Vietnam’s central highlands

Coffee production in Vietnam’s Central Highlands is important for rural livelihoods and national export earnings, but the sector faces growing pressure from climate variability, declining soil fertility, and biodiversity loss. Intercropping and adjustments in planting density are increasingly promoted as part of diversified coffee-production systems, although their relationships with productivity and farm revenue remain insufficiently understood. This study examined how these management practices were associated with coffee yield, coffee gross revenue, non-coffee gross revenue, and total gross farm revenue in robusta coffee systems. The analysis used 332 farm-year observations from 83 farms in Gia Lai and Lam Dong provinces, collected over four consecutive coffee crop years: 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24, and 2024–25. A management-based Biodiversity Practice Index was developed using cropping system and coffee planting density. Farms were classified as Low, Moderate, or High BPI. Descriptive comparisons and adjusted regression models with farm-clustered robust standard errors were used to assess differences across management systems. Low BPI and sole-coffee farms generally recorded the highest coffee yield and coffee gross revenue. Moderate BPI farms recorded the highest total gross farm revenue because revenue from intercrops partly offset lower coffee-derived revenue. After separating coffee and non-coffee revenue, the results did not show a clear BPI advantage for coffee gross revenue alone. Overall, the findings indicate a trade-off between coffee-specialised production and revenue diversification. Intercropping broadened farm revenue sources, but the study does not provide direct evidence of improved ecological biodiversity, sustainability, profitability, or resilience.