Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, MARCH 30
With a major part of the Himalayan region considered ideal for coffee plantation, Nagaland’s climatic condition is also found to be perfect for the same and the state’s potential for exporting coffee to South Africa and European countries, if taken up seriously, is very high. This was stated by South African coffee expert and director Himalayan Network & Noble Cause, Dr. Pieter Vermeulen, who is currently in Nagaland to explore the potentials of the state’s coffee on the invitation of the Land Resources department (LRD).
The department, in collaboration with the Coffee Board of India, is undertaking a five-year comprehensive plan for coffee development (plantation) and aims to cover an area of 5000 hectares across the state from 2015-2020. The plantation will be carried out by 10,000 identified households (marginal farmers) in all the districts, out of which, 450 households in seven districts covering an area of 230 hectares have already been taken up during 2015-16 and 6,00,000 coffee saplings were reportedly raised and planted during this period.Talking to reporters here on Wednesday at the directorate of Land Resources, Dr. Pieter said he has been to Nagaland earlier to explore abandoned coffee farms, before he was associated with the department. He said he came across an active plantation in Wokha district and collected some samples to Delhi to process and after tasting the sample, he found the quality to be “very interesting” as it contained the citrus flavour which is peculiar to the popular Himalayan coffee.
Once he got invited by the LRD to study the new plantations this year for assistance on technical aspect, he has visited few coffee farms including one each at Kigwema under Kohima district, Kubza in Mokokchung, Litami in Zunheboto and Wokha village under Wokha district. “The type of coffee grown here is one of the best I’ve tasted,” the expert says.
He informed that his organization is excited to secure a source and assist the state in growing and taking its coffee to the world. He is enthusiastic that Nagaland has basic infrastructure and villages in different districts are connected with pliable roads, the state has natural fertile soil and ideal climatic condition for large scale coffee production, and he maintains that the people should take advantage of these assets. Pieter views that the biggest challenge will be to teach the people to appreciate coffee before they take out their production to the global market.
The potential that development of coffee has for the state’s economic growth is remarkable, particularly with India being a tea-growing country, and coffee being one of the fastest growing commodities in the world, Dr. Pieter said.
Meanwhile, LRD director Mhathung Yanthan said large scale coffee plantation was introduced in Nagaland in the 1980s, but the projects had failed due to problem of market avenues and farms were abandoned. He said it was in 2014 that the Coffee Board of India, seeing potentials, approached the state government to explore possibilities of reviving coffee plantation in the state and the LRD was identified as the nodal department for coffee development programme.
In the projected 5000 hectares under the programme, Nagaland is looking to produce over 8000 metric tonnes (mt) of coffee within the next five years, with a rough estimate of a turnover of approximately Rs.200 crore if successfully marketed. According to Dr. Pieter, though the development programme is still at a nascent stage, once production reaches up to 10,000mt, the market aspect should be ready to target Europe.
As per to the LRD plan, the land to be covered for plantation in 2016-17 is 917 hectares, 1190 hectares in 2017-18, 1710 hectares in 2018-19 and 953 hectares in 2019-20. The project is to be taken up in all the 11 districts of the state.
