In a bid to improve the lot of his state’s farmers, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been not only launching new and innovative schemes, such as KALIA, but also focusing on teaching growers the latest cultivation techniques and imparting them knowledge about cash crops. In fact, the Chief Minister for past sometime has been laying special emphasis on growing cash crops like coffee in districts such as Koraput and Rayagada. The soil of these districts, with an undulating topography dominated by hills, is eminently suitable for the cultivation of coffee.
The Chief Minister had recently announced that another 5,000 hectares in Koraput district would be brought under coffee cultivation between 2022 and 2025. Coffee farming is, in fact, transforming the hilly tribal-dominated villages of Koraput and bringing about a qualitative change in the lives of around 5,000 tribal families.
Koraput district, located at a height of 3,000 feet above sea level, is ideal for coffee cultivation also because of its cool climate and rainfall. Coffee cultivation is a viable alternative to podu or shifting cultivation for the tribals of several blocks in the district. While profit margins are good, low-cost factor makes this farming all the more attractive.
Coffee was cultivated on 2,000 hectares of land in Koraput seven years ago, but is now grown over 5,000 hectares. Interestingly, coffee cultivation is now all set to return to Thuamul Rampur block of Kalahandi after more than two decades. The Indian Coffee Board (ICB) is said to have once again evinced interest in the expansion of coffee cultivation in not only Koraput and Rayagada but also Kalahandi-Kandhamal districts owing to their favourable climatic conditions and feasibility.
If sources are to be believed, the local unit of the board has been asked by the directorate of soil conservation to identify suitable government land for the purpose. The department has earmarked 481 acres of land for the cultivation and clearance from higher authorities is awaited.
Earlier, the Soil Conservation department, through funding under National Rural Employment Programme and Drought Prone Area Programme, had taken up coffee cultivation on around 328 hectares of government land in several areas of Kalahandi’s Thuamul Rampur block between 1967 and 1988.
For economic upliftment of the tribals, around two acres of the planted area was given to 700 beneficiaries. But just as the plants started bearing fruit, the entire area including white oak trees were cleaned by some misguided tribals for Podu cultivation. This led to large-scale deforestation and loss of soil and nutrients.
But now there is likely to be a new beginning on the coffee front in Kalahandi, which shares several similarities with Koraput. Both the districts not only have a huge tribal population but are afflicted by the problem of Maoist insurgency. Coffee cultivation can not only improve the financial condition of tribal farmers, it can also save them from the trap of the Maoist ultras.
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