Hundreds of households in Ea Pok commune, Dak Lak province are fighting to reclaim their land from the forestry company after 40 years of working as hired laborers on their own land.
From mid-May until now, people in Lang village, Ea Pok town, Cu Mgar district, and Dak Lak province have had to be in a confrontation with Ea Pok Coffee Joint Stock Company, to reclaim about 40 hectares of arable land.
The culmination of this confrontation was on May 18, when hundreds of people gathered to protest at the above land, which according to residents was to protest against the coffee company’s destruction of their crops.
Videos and photos of the protest were shared on social media. Shared images show that riot police forces are also present at the scene and collide with people.
On May 28, people continued to hold demonstrations, holding up banners to ask the coffee company to return the land. The state media has so far not reported on the incident.
“We want the company to return our ancestral land so that people can have a business in the future, people are getting more and more but less land, so people have to reclaim the land,” a local resident told RFA under the condition of anonymity.
According to our research, Lang village currently has about 250 households, all of whom are indigenous Ede people, and all people live on agricultural cultivation.
Talking to us, local people said that they had been cultivating this land for many generations, but after 1975, the local government took it and gave it to the state-owned enterprise, Eapok Coffee Farm which later changed to Ea Pok Coffee Joint Stock Company to grow coffee trees.
From being the owners of the land, people suddenly became hired workers on their own land.
From 1983 up to now, people said that they were allowed to cultivate this land by the company, but were assigned output of 18 tons of coffee per hectare, or offered to pay up to 80% of each crop harvest.
“People work hard, but they don’t have enough to eat because they have to pay for the company’s output. In many cases, they don’t even have enough output to pay, so they have to owe, and they have to pay up for it in the next crop,” said one resident who was assigned to cultivate on 8,000 square meters of land.
According to the people, in 2010, the company allowed to uproot coffee trees and let people grow other crops, including corn but did not support seedlings, fertilizers, or pesticides.
At the same time, the company kept the form of flat production or taxed up to 80% of the output per crop.
“People have to pay for themselves, the company does not give a dime, nor give a single pill when people are sick,” said another resident farming on 10,000 square meters of land.
However, recently, the company wants people to stop growing crops and switch to durian trees. This met with opposition from the people, leading to the company destroying people’s crops on May 18 to prepare land for durian cultivation.
In 2019, facing the difficult economic life and the irresponsible attitude of the company, the villagers of Lang decided to file an application with the government to reclaim their land and farming rights.
The reporter of RFA radio called Ea Pok Coffee Joint Stock Company to ask the company to make a point of view but was told by the caller that the press must register with the company’s leaders, and only be interviewed when the leader of this company approves.
When asked about the government’s attitude towards people’s demands, a local resident said:
“We sent petitions to the town government, to the provincial government but got no response. The first time, five households signed, then many more households signed. The government always sides with the company, not helping the people.”
We contacted Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hong, Chairwoman of the People’s Committee of Ea Pok town to ask about the dispute between Lang villagers and the coffee company, and she said that she would not accept interviews via phone.
When asked if people would agree to maintain the current form of contract farming if Ea Pok Coffee Joint Stock Company reduces taxes and increases support, local people said they firmly wanted to reclaim the land.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
