The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : The bitter truth: State's coffee production set to decrease

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 29, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

The bitter truth: State's coffee production set to decrease

Nagesh Prabhu

Diseases caused by heavy rain are feared to have affected the crop

BANGALORE: Incidence of diseases caused by heavy rains is feared to have taken its toll on Karnataka's coffee production this year, with estimates being revised downward by 4 per cent.

Production in the State, which is the main coffee growing area, has been revised downward by 8,975 tonnes. Coffee output in the state is pegged at 2,06,025 tonnes in post-monsoon forecast, against 2,15,000 tonnes in post-blossom forecast. Production for the Arabica variety of coffee has been cut down to 80,250 tonnes in the post-monsoon forecast from 83,000 tonnes during the post-blossom projection, while output of Robusta has been reduced to 1,25,775 tonnes from 1,32,000 tonnes, Coffee Board officials told The Hindu .

The country accounts for about 4.5 per cent of world coffee production and the industry provides employment to six lakh people. Among the coffee growing states, Karnataka accounts for 70 per cent of country's total coffee production followed by Kerala (22 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (7 per cent). Kodagu alone accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the country's total coffee production.

Disease

Incidence of diseases have taken its toll on country's coffee production as well, with estimates being revised downward by 4.09 per cent to 2,88,000 tonnes in the post-monsoon forecast. The Board has pegged the post-monsoon forecast of production during 2006-07 at 2,88,000 tonnes compared with post- blossom estimate of 3,00,300 tonnes. In Kerala, the post-monsoon forecast of coffee production has been reduced to 59,475 tonnes from 61,200 tonnes of post- blossom projection.

According to the Coffee Board heavy rains coupled with diseases such as stalk rot and black rot in the coffee plant have forced a downward forecast of output.

Indeed, white stem borer in Arabica and berry borer in Robusta had adversely affected yield in Kodagu.

Diseases affected plantations of Chikmagalur, Kodagu and Hassan districts and caused decline in the output. On account of diseases, Robusta production declined by 4.72 per cent and Arabica by 3.3 per cent.

The other reason for the slight decline in production could be due to removal of certain plants owing to pest attacks resulting in re-plantation.

New plants were hardly a couple of years old. The harvesting of Arabica has been completed while Robusta was still in progress in coffee growing districts, the official said.

However, the export of coffee and coffee products has increased by 15 per cent in 2006 compared with the previous year.

The State exported 2,03,758 tonnes of coffee in 2005 and against 2,29,271 tonnes in 2006, the official added.

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