Coffee planters seek changes in existing schemes

Coffee planters have appealed to the government to implement various measures like improvement in existing schemes in the plantation sector along with discovery of new disease-resistant strains in the 12th five-year plan to improve production and productivity of the commodity.

They have also asked the government to implement a new scheme which will allow growers to participate in international exhibition.

“In our consultation with the Coffee Board, we have appealed for improvement in schemes like re-plantation, water augmentation, quality upgradation, pollution abatement measures among others to increase production of this commodity,” Sahadev Balakrishna, president of Karnataka Planters’ Association said. Allocation in these schemes is around Rs 500 crore during the 11th plan period and we want to have a greater allocation in the next plan, he added.

Schemes implemented during the 11th plan have excluded planters coming under the co-operative and corporate sector from any kind of subsidy. Planters have demanded inclusion of all entities in the next five-year plan. “We have also asked for a plan of action for release of new disease-resistant and drought-resistant strains for both robusta and arabica varieties,” he said.

Recently, planters were migrating to cultivation of robusta from arabica as production of the latter reduced due to white stem borer. Ramesh Rajah, president of Coffee Exporters’ Association, said the major concern relating to stagnating production should be addressed in the next plan. “The government should also come up with some measures to reduce the operating cost of planters and exporters in this kind of inflationary environment,” he added.

On concerns of coffee exporters, Rajah said some schemes similar to the Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme (DEPB) and interest subvention should be implemented to protect the interest of exporters.

The Coffee Board has proposed to increase mechanisation subsidy to planters, along with a plan for allocation on marketing development. “In the wake of labour shortages in coffee growing regions, we have given a proposal to provide for higher mechanisation subsidy to tide over this problem,” Jabir Asghar, vice-chairman of Coffee Board said.

India produces around 300,000 tonnes of coffee in a crop year, which constitutes around 200,000 tonnes of robusta and 100,000 tonnes of arabica. While 70 per cent of Indian coffee is exported to European Union nations, Russia and other parts of the world, the rest in consumed domestically. Major coffee growing regions are Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.