In a move aimed at boosting productivity and quality of the Indian coffees, the Coffee Board planning to infuse new technologies in the cultivation. The new technologies are with respect to irrigation, fertigation, mechanisation and precision agriculture among others.
“We are going to take up mechanisation and also help growers to upgrade the quality of their coffees,” said KG Jagadeesha, CEO and Secretary, Coffee Board. The Board will be subsidising the adoption of new technologies by the growers, which will not only help them overcome the labour shortage related issues but would also upgrade their processing infrastructure.
Jagadeesha said an allocation of ₹110 crore is being made to take up the various developmental activities in the coffee sector. “Earlier, there was no provision for supporting quality upgradation related infrastructure such as drying yards and pulpers. That we will be implementing now,” he said.
Automation Process
“We are also looking at technology infusion in terms of automation of processes such as fertigation, irrigation and also looking at deploying drone technology. There will be upto 40 per cent subsidy on the cost of equipments related to fertigation, irrigation and automation and machines that include farm based activities,” he said.
The Board has constituted a committee of stakeholders to identify the appropriate machinery that could be subsidised under the mechanisation. Some 25 machines have been identified including weed cutter among others, he said.
Also the Coffee Board is planning to establish a model farm at Coffee Research Sub Station, Chettalli, Kodagu to demonstrate the technologies that can be used by small growers. It has recently called for an expression of interest from manufacturers and authorised dealers to set up the model farm.
Small growers with holdings of less than 10 hectares will be a priority for the Board for extending the subsidies targetted towards mechanisation, automation and quality upgradation, Jagadeesha said. Small growers account for about 98.8 per cent of the total land holdings of over 2.20 lakh under the coffee in the country. The small growers account for 70 per cent of the coffee production in the country, estimated around 3.5 lakh tonnes.
“If the demand from small growers is not there, the subsidy can be extended to large growers. However, the quantum of subsidy for large growers would be 25 per cent,” Jagadeesha said.