Coffee Board Chairman Jawaid Akthar has said the Board is planning to extend coffee cultivation to 4,000 hectares during the current fiscal.
He was addressing the media here on Thursday after inaugurating a day-long programme to acquaint coffee growers with modern agriculture practices at the Regional Coffee Research Station (RCRS) at Chundale. The Board had identified 1,000 hectares in the traditional coffee growing regions of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and 3,000 hectares in non-conventional coffee cultivating regions of Orissa and north-eastern States for the purpose. The Board would provide 25 per cent subsidy to the new growers, he said.
Many tribesmen in the North East and conventional arecanut farmers in Karnataka had shown interest in cultivating coffee, Mr. Akthar said.
As part of improving the productivity of coffee plantations in the country, the Board focussed on developing a drought tolerant Robusta coffee variety for Wayanad and intensified research to tackle the increasing pest attack in the Arabica variety, he said.
The Board would put pressure on the Union Commerce Ministry to execute a price stabilisation mechanism for the domestic farmers to counter the fluctuating prices in the international markets, he added.
