Coffee In Koraput
The almost denuded slopes of the
undulating low hills of Eastern Ghat hill range may present the onlooker with a
specter no less beautiful than the fabled English country side. The less steep
slopes blanketed with various crops like niger, raagi, paddy, lentils etc.
depending on the season. Large trees like Mango, Banyan, Fig, Mahua, Semul and
perhaps a stray Sal dot the landscape. Here and there crop up tissue cultured
eucalyptus plantations and break the monotony of smaller crops. The landscape
exhibits a unique array of colour with each passing season. The steep hill slopes
which are spared from podu cultivation host scrub forest of mixed variety where
trees are not very big. A careful look at the satellite map of Podagad and
Kakrigumma area of Koraput will reveal patches of dark greenery in the
otherwise barren looking carpet of brown. Some of these are remaining pockets
of dense forests and the others are the painstaking effort of some of the
entrepreneur who have taken up cultivation of shade grown coffee with pepper.
The tall and straight growing silver oak trees host the pepper creeper, afford
the much need shade for the coffee bushes and more importantly add up to the
green cover of the area.
History of coffee in Koraput district
can be traced back to the times of Maharaja Ram Chandra Deo of Jeypore who had
set up silviculture stations to take up cultivation of coffee plants on an
experimental basis near present day Mohulbhata village and Peta ghat. The
experiment was successful to some extent as well. The erstwhile ruler had foreseen the
suitability of Koraput climate for rearing of coffee plants. Though the real
head way was made post independence when soil conservation department of
government of Odisha, to mitigate soil erosion, decided to take up large scale
plantation of coffee in the catchment area of Machkund reservoir. Further some
private entrepreneurs from within and outside state acquired land and started cultivation
of coffee with pepper in Kasipur, Dasmantpur, Kakrigumma, Podagada , Pottangi
area as a cash crop. These areas being located on the 900 mtr plateau of
Eastern Ghat mountain range offer suitable climate for coffee rearing.
In 1970s and 1980s nearly 200
aspiring planters raised coffee plantations in different areas of Koraput
district to reap the benefits of the conducive climate. Coffee Board of
India set up a research station near
Koraput town to promote, develop and assist agronomy of coffee in the district.
And thirty years later only 10-20 planters have been able to carry through.
Absence of any market linkages,
labour shortage, increased labour cost, lack of any support or stimuli from
state government has forced many of the planters either to abandon the
cultivation or move on to other agronomy. However steadily high demand of
coffee and pepper in international markets at present has made cultivation of
these commodities a more lucrative proposition than ever before. Traditional
areas of Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala where coffee had been grown over the
years have been facing problems in plenty which include high labour costs,
pest/diseases like berry borer and coffee rust, unavailability of new land for
expansion etc.
Sri Susanto Panda, a planter from
Jeypore, has persevered hard to tide over the lean period and has established
himself as one of the successful coffee planters of the district. He ventured
into the business of coffee in the year 1997, quite late compared to other
planters of the district. With sustained effort and his conviction he has
succeeded in reaping good profit. From among the two variety of coffee that is
grown in Indian sub-continent viz Arabica and Robusta Sri Panda
grows the former at his 30 acres plantation near Rajuguda village in Dasmantpur
block of Koraput district.
He opines “Climate, soil condition,
rainfall etc. are very conducive for coffee in Koraput district. With a little
hard work, dedication and sustained effort one can get good profit from coffee and
black pepper. When I started I had very little access to information and
technology related to the crop but now everything is so readily available.
However for any agricultural success story some push and support from
government is very much necessary in the form of technical know-how, financial
aid and market linkage etc.”
“For the overall development of our
region coffee cultivation can be an effective tool. Being labour intensive it
provides employment to poor tribal folks. The shade and host trees increase the
green cover and check soil erosion.
Coffee plantations also act as a safe heaven for the biodiversity of the region
if environment friendly practices are adopted.” says the 45 years old
agriculturist.
Importers of coffee from Europe are
looking up to non-traditional area such as Odisha and Andhra Pradesh for better
quality coffee beans as the beans produced in these areas have not been
affected by berry borer or other such disease. But the production from Odisha
is not sufficient to carve a niche for itself in the international market.
Ruing the lackadaisical attitude of the state he says “Government of
neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state is vigorously promoting the coffee from
Paderu and Araku area internationally and have targeted to increase area under
coffee cultivation by upto 1.5 Lakh hectare where as due to lack of any
encouragement from state government the area under coffee is gradually
decreasing in Odisha.”
