Coffee cultivation in NE dwindling

GUWAHATI, July 17: Way back in the 1990s, there were at least 10,000 hectare of land under coffee cultivation in the Northeast. Today it is just about 3,000 hectare. Production, which should ideally have been in the range of 4,000 tons a year, hovers around the 400 tons mark. But these are only rough estimates. Ask the Coffee Board's Guwahati office for data on coffee cultivation in the region and you are likely to be refused. The Coffee Board, incidentally, is the main agency entrusted with the work of prompting coffee cultivation in the region. The Board's reluctance to part with the data is perhaps reflective of its inactivity in the region. "Coffee is stagnant the world over," asserted a senior official of the Board here. He defended the Board's poor show by citing reasons varying from the invincibility of tea to the Board's lack of manpower. He also apportioned a part of the blame for the state governments in the region. The official says the main problem hampering growth of coffee is the lack of proper infrastructure. To give the necessary care to the crop there is need to have offices in all the major crop areas like the Karbi Anglong Hills, Nagaland, etc, he said. "We need a man at the spot to fulfil a project. Though we have enough money, it is not possible to do anything sitting in Guwahati," the official states. He says there is hardly any officer for the states of the region to publicise and promote the crop. He says there are a few fertilizer outlets in the tribal areas where the sensitive coffee crop is grown. He says there is no complementary support from the state governments. "We are working in isolates," he points out. At present between 3,000 to 4,000 people are involved in coffee cultivation in the region but their efforts are not forthcoming. The Board official himself acknowledges that places like Mokokchung in Nagaland can produce one of the best coffees in the world. The Board released Rs 1.5 crore in the region during the last two years, he says, although he is unwilling to give the breakup. The Board has drawn up a plan to add 15,000 hectare of fresh land to coffee cultivation. He claims the Board offers financial incentives to coffee cultivators and for new entrepreneurs. But the Board, he says, has no publicity material nor does it carry out campaigns to promote coffee cultivation. The reason? "We don't want to be swamped by applications for financial assistance," he reasons. Despite his reasoning, the fact is that the results are simply not coming out. "The organisation is only the facilitator," the Board official says. Asked whether all the money spent by the Board has gone waste, the official counters that the money given to farmers helps them to at least buy food for sometime". "Even if there is no growth in coffee cultivation we are at least doing some social service," he pleads. Any wonder then that coffee cultivation here has failed to take off ?