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The commerce ministry is waking up to white stem borer (WSB) pest attacks, which hits arabica coffee production year after year. The ministry has decided to set up an experts committee to help find a solution on the problem.
Earlier this week, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman assured growers that concerted efforts would be made to find a solution to the problem. She said the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) was being involved to help identify experts in this regard.
"At the moment, I am searching for a solution…We are forming a small group, with participants from the planters and industry, to understand the problem. With the help of ICAR, we will identify domain experts and give them a time-frame later. Before the next crop, they should at least give us the prevailing knowledge in this area and share it with growers," Sitharaman said.
She added arabica was very unique to India, as was the WSB problem. Growers in other countries weren't adversely affected because they were growing the robusta variety, she said. "Arabica has its own excellent value. We will look at it from the point of view of how to sustain and allow it to flourish," she said.
Through the years, widespread WSB attacks have led to planters in south India rapidly shifting from arabica to robusta plantation. Of the overall coffee acreage, 73 per cent was accounted for by arabica in 1950-51 (67,613 hectares out of 92,523 hectares); in 2012-13, this fell to 49.5 per cent (205,775 hectares out of 415,341 hectares). In 1950-51, arabica accounted for 15,511 tonnes of the overall coffee production of 18,893 tonnes; in 2013-14, it stood at 102,200 tonnes of the total production of 304,500 tonnes.
"The rapid pace at which arabica is being taken over by robusta will continue unless there is some drastic and decisive intervention. This is important, as traditional arabica coffee cultivation practices have ensured protection of biodiversity and ecosystem in the ecologically sensitive Western and Eastern Ghats. This needs to be reinstated through an adequate incentive mechanism," said Vijayan Rajes, president, United Planters' Association of Southern India.
The severity of WSB attacks has been such that many estates have resorted to uprooting arabica plants to avoid further damage. It is said the dry weather between October 2013 and April this year, as well as the high temperatures during the summer, aided the WSB attacks.
Rajes said it took five-six years to bring coffee estates hit by WSB back to shape. As growers required substantial capital for this, special packages should be provided for replanting and infilling, distinct from the current replanting scheme, he added.
