Want to make India a 'coffee nation', Coffee Board

The Coffee Board wants to make India a coffee nation and position it as the drink for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of New India, a top official of the board said today.
Speaking at the inaugural event of the Seventh India International Coffee Festival,Coffee Board secretary Srivatsa Krishna said, "We are positioning coffee as the drinkfor Prime Minister's vision of New India."
"Chai (Tea) has been the drink for many many years and British gave tea for free at the street corners and made this country a tea drinking country. We want to make it a coffee nation," he said.

"Today outside the southern world and the national capital and a few other state capital, nobody drinks coffee. Can we have pure Arabica and Robusta as the drink for the tea bugs from Tier I and II cities of New India? That is the dream we are pursuing."
To achieve its goal,the board wants to make Indian coffee as famed as the Darjeeling or Shillong tea,said Krishna at the four-day event.
He said the board was working towards branding and geo-tagging Indian coffee, telling the world the unique India coffee story and sell it as a premium product.

Krishna said the Board was the firstorganisation in India to introduce the block chain technologyinto coffee in a pilot project through Eca Analytics.

Under the project, it intends to bring together growers, curers, roaster, exporters and the Coffee caf.
Eca Analytics would also help the board utilize the 100 years of rainfall and soil data to help the growers.
Krishna said the board has also partnered with Harvard University to experiment with 'precision agriculture development'.
"We are also partnering with Harvard University. Two professors,Michael Kremer and Prof Sean Paul,have come forward with something called precision agriculture development."
"Todaythey are working in three states of India. We are bringing them into the coffee world wherein through an IVR call working with scientists at CCRI. They can give precise advise to the grower. This will hopefully take off by the end of Q-1," saidKrishna.

On the occasion, a mobile application developed by the Coffee Board for growers and exporters was also demonstrated.
It will be formally launched two months later by the Union Commerce Minister.