Phulbani: With the climate of Kandhamal district being conducive for coffee cultivation, the state government has decided to undertake coffee farming in the area on a large scale. Earlier, coffee farming was being done only in Daringbadi block of the district, but now the state government has decided to expand the cash crop to four more blocks of the district. These are G Udayagiri, Raikia, K Nuagaon and Tikabali blocks. Coffee farming will be undertaken in these four blocks with the help of the coffee board.
Meanwhile, shade planting necessary for coffee cultivation has been completed on over 70 hectare of land in the primary phase while the coffee saplings will be planted after a period of two years. The coffee saplings once planted will give harvest for 100 years, it was learnt. Coffee plants grow best and give better harvest if planted on land at a higher altitude than the sea level in cold climatic conditions. The climate of Kandhamal district has been found conducive for coffee cultivation. Notably, Daringbadi block has yielded success in coffee farming. The state government first conducted a survey on spreading the cultivation to more areas and help farmers get better earnings from the cultivation.
Later, 100 hectare of land was identified in G Udayagiri, K Nuagaon, Tikabali, Raikia and Daringbadi blocks for the cash crop cultivation. Among them shade planting has been undertaken by planting of silver oak trees on 30 hectare of land of Soil Conservation department in G Udayagiri block. Similarly, shade planting has been done on 20 hectare of land in Daringbadi, 10 in K Nuagaon, six in Tikabali and four in Raikia blocks through plantation of jackfruit, jamun, champa flower and silver oak trees. Farmers have not spent a single pie from their pockets and these plantation works were undertaken under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), official sources said. The farmers have rather earned by working under the scheme. In the past, coffee plantation in Daringbadi was destroyed after being struck by the cyclonic storm Titli.
Now 1,000 trees have been planted on two hectare of land. In G Udayagiri, 1.15 lakh silver oak saplings have been planted in the areas. These saplings will be taken to coffee plantation block for shade planting. Over 100 saplings are planted for shade planting per hectare of land while 2,000 coffee saplings will be planted on the same land. Moreover, black pepper saplings will be planted where shade planting will be done. The black pepper plant being a creeper will coil around the shade plants and spread. This will help the farmer to earn around Rs 1 lakh in a year from the sale of black pepper. The coffee board will help make coffee seeds available from Koraput. The coffee board will collect the coffee after its harvest while Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation (TDCC) will undertake the marketing.
Moreover, farmer will get Rs 45 per kilogram of coffee. The maintenance and upkeep of the coffee garden will be done through MGNREGS for the first three years. The coffee board will then look after its maintenance for the next three years and the TDCC for the next 15 years. The local intelligentsia has demanded for establishment of a permanent coffee board in Kandhamal district. When contacted, project director Prashant Kumar Tripathy of Watershed Mission said all preparations have been completed for cultivation of coffee. Now, shade planting is going on and coffee saplings will be planted after a period of two years when the trees grow. A decision to spread the cultivation to more areas will be taken after making an assessment of the coffee harvest.