Indianfarmers

Indian Coffee, cradled by the verdant Western Ghats, coffee forests area an ecological wonderland, grown in the world’s rainiest inhabited hill ranges under a canopy of thick natural shade. Rainfall of 2500 to 4000 mm – mostly within a span of 100 days, followed by more than 100 days of continuous drought. One of the 25 bio diversity hot spots of the world. Defining wide range of unique flora and fauna. Entirely handpicked and completely sun dried, fed as it is by more than dozen rivers, the majority, taking birth in the high ranges of the ghats.

Coffee is grown in 4.5 to 4.75 lakh hectares, mainly in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamilnadu the southern states with a little area in North eastern states and Andhra Pradesh.

Coffee growers, are facing following challenges:-

Increased debts
Harassment by banks
Suicides more than 100 cases reported.
Distress sale of coffee estates.
Unlawful elements taking roots, socio-economic imbalance
Labour Retrenchment
Ecological impact.

In the interest of biodiversity of India’s coffee plantations, to protect the rural micro-enterprise, the coffee growers and workers, the Karnataka Growers Federation would place before the National convention of CIFA the following resolutions to make an appeal to government of India.

* Comprehensive debt relief package as per the representation of the growers association.

* The GDP of India’s Coffee plantations should be measured not only on its economy but also on its contribution towards preservation, conservation of ecology and environment. The government of India should assist coffee growers in maintaining the said GDP and coffee economy.

* The government of India and IPCC should recognize the contribution of India’s coffee plantation in its role as carbor sink in the present precarious period of global worming, as advocated by IPCC and other global environment organizations. The government of India should come toward to assist coffee growers in conservation of coffee ecology for the benefit of future generation. Kyoto protocol states that estates planted after 1989 will be eligible for carbon credits. Most coffee estates were set up in Karnataka over 70 to 100 yrs. These estates should be eligible for support on the lines of the carbon credit in order to maintain their present states. The Government could provide this support in the best interest of the environment.

Agriculture sector should be outside the purview of the Debt recovery commission.
If is advisable to create separate ministry for plantations crops that includes Coffee, Tea and Rubber.
Mechanization should be introduced wherever possible to lessen the work load on workers and to improve the efficiency. In this regard, it is necessary to import suitable machineries by providing substantial import subsides.
Massive long term financial assistance should be provided to revamp infrastructure for those estates which are more than 40 years old. The scale of financial assistance should be scientifically analyzed.
Working capital loans should be provided at 4% rate of interest on the actual scale of finance and taking in to account the economic viability of the sector when introducing as small, medium and big. For coffee growers holdings less than 10 ha is considered as small this should be considered for the interest application.
Credit worthiness of a grower should be considered by banker by taking into account. The actual cost of production and the wealth of the land.
Distorting subsides and protection by developed nations to its farmers have become an uphill task to our farmers to compete with those farmers. The government of India could take some suitable remedial measures to make our farmers competitive in the international market.
The frequent slump in international coffee price pushes the growers into debt trap. An insurance mechanism to protect the growers against market risks such as market fluctuations etc to be established.
Restructure the Coffee Board to make it more proactive and vibrant, which includes appointment if a grower as the chairman.