Karnataka - Madikeri   

Govt. urged to bail out coffee growers

By Our Staff Correspondent

MADIKERI, JULY 3. The Kodagu Growers' Federation has demanded that the Union and the State governments come to the rescue of coffee growers gripped by an unprecedented crisis owing to a slump in the coffee prices. The Governments should initiate measures to waive coffee loans and the interest accrued on it by the growers from 1999-2000, it has said.

In a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, a copy of which was released to the press here on Friday at a rally of the coffee growers from Kodagu, Chikmagalur, and Hassan districts, the federation said the Government should fix minimum support price for coffee. While Arabica parchment should get a minimum price of Rs. 3,000 a bag and Rs. 1,500 for a bag of cherry, the Robusta parchment should get Rs. 2,200 a bag and cherry Rs. 1,200, it said.

The federation said the interest rate on coffee loans should be below five per cent in future and all plantation workers should be included in the "below the poverty line" scheme. The subsidy on manure and pesticides should be increased to help the growers maintain the plantations in good conditions and tackle diseases, the federation said. Interest should not be levied on the special coffee term loan until the coffee crisis ended, it added.

The federation noted that the State Government had been asked to release the amount due in the form of interest waiver promised by it in the previous Budget.

The funds should be released to the cooperative institutions, it said. It was the duty of the State Government to identify the families of growers who had committed suicides owing to the coffee crisis, and provide them relief. The Government should instruct the bankers not to charge compound interest on loans, the federation said.

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