Daringbadi: Daringbadi in Kandhamal district is a popular place for tourists and is also referred to as the ‘Kashmir of Odisha’. Now however, Daringbadi is also gaining recognition for its coffee cultivation. To add to the success story, now the state-run coffee plantations are processing the seeds in the gardens itself. Earlier coffee seeds were collected from the plantations and sent to Koraput or Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) in Bhubaneswar for processing.
Now the cumbersome process has been shelved. Tourists at Daringbadi will always make it a point to visit the coffee plantations. To facilitate them, the block administration constructed a ‘Hill View Park’ in 2000 and renovated it again in 2015. The Forest department also constructed a nature park for entertainment of tourists. The ‘Shita Utsav’ which was first started by the district administration in 2015 currently attracts tourists from all parts of the world. However, even then, the coffee plantations have remained prime attraction spots for visitors.
Earlier, the Soil Conservation department had floated a tender and assigned a private agency for upkeep of the coffee gardens, but the agency failed to carry out the work in a proper manner. However, things started changing for the better after the stateowned Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation of Odisha LTD (TDCCOL) took up the management of the coffee plantations. New coffee gardens have also been developed under the ‘Mission Coffee’ programme.
For this programme coffee cultivation will be taken up on 70 hectares of land With seeds now being processed at Daringbadi itself, employment opportunities for women have grown. Women belonging to self help groups are now involved in the coffee processing work after getting the training required. So they have become self reliant. All this development is happening under the direct supervision of Kandhamal District Collector Ashish Ishwar Patil with the assistance of local BDO Gadadhar Patra and project director Prashant Tripathy, who works in the Soil Conservation office at Baliguda.
Officials said that after processing of the seeds, the entire amount is taken to Koraput for preparation of the coffee powder. Last year approximately seven tonne of coffee seeds were processed. The district administration has set a seed processing target of 10 tonne or more for 2023. Officials said that soon a government-run café will come up here at a cost of Rs 50 lakh. A children’s park, roads and ponds will be constructed as part of beautification project. The state Tourism department has sanctioned Rs 30 lakh for the project while another Rs 20 lakh will be spent from MGNREGS funds.
The district administration will spend an additional Rs 50 lakh for beautification, Patra said. The reason behind setting up of the café is to allow tourists have a taste of organic coffee. They will also be able to buy coffee powder, roasted beans and green coffee at government rates. Demand for all these products are increasing, officials said.