Cum’ gar district is one of a number of important coffee growing regions in the Central Highlands. But it is also home to several Ede and M’nong ethnic minority groups whose living standard used to be very low due to poor production skills and techniques. Project EDE has given 900 households in Cum’ gar district’s 5 communes - Quang Tien, Cum’ gar, Chuse, EaKpam, and Eah’ding - with advanced technologies to improve their production, especially in coffee growing, and mitigate climate change impacts. Do Thanh Chung, EDE Project Director, told VOV: "Climate change is no longer an unfamiliar topic. It has affected every farming household in the Central Highlands. Dak Lak is one of the main coffee growing regions in Vietnam and is facing numerous difficulties in recent years due to climate change. Last year, Dak Lak province suffered a big drought leading to insufficient water for personal use, not to mention production. The project addresses several issues including guiding local people to use water and pesticides appropriately, reducing wastefulness and harmful impacts on the environment."

Project EDE has helped local farmers set up cooperatives to meet the national new rural development program’s criteria. Project officers helped the cooperatives’ management boards to improve their management and financial skills and organize communal activities that benefit their cooperatives’ members.  The project helps connect cooperative farmers to build arboretums, find reliable suppliers of pesticides and fertilizers and stable outlets for their coffee, reduce input costs, and improve productivity. Do Thanh Chung elaborates: "We’ve seen remarkable progress in the 5 communes involved in the project. Among them, Quang Tien was the first to establish a cooperative owned and managed by the farmers themselves. We’ve also succeeded in increasing local coffee production and protecting local farmers from high costs."

With project EDE, local farmers of the M’ Nong and Ede ethnic minorities received opportunities to attend vocational training courses that offered them advanced production technologies and management skills. H’Mainie, a farmer of the Ede ethnic minority, said: "Farmers like us are very interested in such vocational training classes. I’ll pass along the knowledge I acquire from these classes to my fellow villagers to help them improve their production."

Project EDE has taught local farmers to conserve water and grow coffee trees and other fruit trees concurrently for greater efficiency. After 2 years of implementing project EDE, the 5 communes of Cum’gar district have fulfilled 15 out of the national rural development program’s 19 criteria.