Bangalore (PTI): Coffee plantation being vulnerable to various factors, there was a need to focus on intercrop cultivation, encourage diversification and look at other allied business avenues, including coffee tourism to ensure a sustainable business, according to coffee experts.

Integrated farming approach, including intercrop cultivation and diversification, will enhance overall sustainability. "Unless diversification takes place, unless small farmers are encouraged to take up coffee-based farming one could not hope to enhance overall productivity and profits", according to Dr P G Chengappa, Vice-Chancellor, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore.

Growing crops like pepper as shade trees, cultivation of cardamom and ensuring animal husbandry would help a sustainable business model given that a bad shower could wipe out the entire coffee blossoms, making the growers very vulnerable to small changes, he said.

Growing of plants that produce biodiesel and act as good shade trees for coffee could produce other alternative revenue avenues for coffee cultivators, opined Prof. Udipi Srinivasa.

Promotion of speciality coffee, Chengappa reasoned out, was another avenue to brew the coffee business. Speciality coffee was one of the fast picking segments and if India could grow the segment, it could offer vast potential, he said.

"In India we could grow speciality coffee like Monsooned Coffee, Mysore Nuggets, Organic coffee, shade coffee and decafinated coffee", said Chengappa.

However, for growing the segment, good agricultural practices should be encouraged, he said.

There should be a special production programme that could act as the USP while marketing speciality coffee. Consumers would want to know the speciality of growing the coffee when marketing the speciality coffee, said Chengappa.

"All this takes a long time and hence these agricultural practices should be encouraged", he said.

Focus on other business avenues like estate tourism could also turn into a successful venture with consumers being taken to the place where the coffee seeds are produced, processed and packaged, he opined.

The Homestay programme at Kodagu and the Tata Coffee Bungalow Rentals were current programmes that had been successful with consumers and more such enterprising ventures could be taken up. The entire concept could be expanded and taken up on a professional platform and could provide good alternative revenue stream to ensure sustainability.

According to G V Krishna Rau, Chairman, Coffee Board, the coffee industry needed to ensure sustainable development over a long period of time given the fact the industry was impacted by small changes. The key lay in increasing productivity.

He said there was a need for replantation since many of the plantations had reached the end of their productivity. He said the industry must learn to reduce their dependance on exports and take up measures to increase demand in domestic market.

He said this year the industy had projected 2.93 lakh tonnes production but post-monsoon the industry was not hopeful of reaching the figure. There had been decline of prices by 10-15 per cent in the last two months, he said.

The industry hope to see an increase in winter demand and domestic consumption had increased by six to seven per cent.

The industry had undertaken a market survey and the report was expected by end of this month.