The Odisha government has launched a mission to bring 10,000 hectares under organic coffee cultivation over the next few years, State Agriculture Production Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Jena has said.
“Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh has a significant area under coffee. We have also started well on coffee plantations and in Koraput distinct, adjoining Andhra, we get high-quality Arabica coffee. We have launched a mission to take up coffee plantation in 10,000 hectares over the next few years and gradually emerge as an organic coffee-producing State in the country,” Jena told businessline.
According to the Coffee Board, non-traditional areas in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and the North-East make up for 21 per cent of the total area under coffee cultivation. During 2021-22, coffee was cultivated on 99,380 hectares of non-traditional areas compared to 3.68 lakh hectares in traditional areas.
Among non-traditional areas, Andhra Pradesh has 94,956 hectares under coffee, while Odisha has 4,424 hectares and the North-East 4,695 hectares. A feature of the area under coffee in Odisha is that only Arabica is grown whereas Andhra and the North-East have some areas under Robusta coffee.
By design
“In Odisha, coffee is grown in tribal areas. Most of the tribal areas are by default organic. No chemical fertiliser is used there. But we want these areas to be organic by design now in order to enjoy the advantage in marketing the coffee,” Jena said.
The Odisha government is trying to enhance productivity through large-scale farm automation and mechanisation. “In fact, 20 years ago our per capita power consumption was hardly one-fourth of the country’s average. We have now nearly caught up,” he said.
Currently, Odisha’s per capita power consumption is 2.4 kW hours against 2.7 kWh for the country. “We are now giving a lot of emphasis on farm mechanisation and automation,” the State Agriculture Production Commissioner said.