With a view to promoting coffee cultivation in the Agency areas of the district, the government has entrusted procurement of coffee from the tribal farmers to the State-owned Girijan Cooperative Corporation.
The GCC has been given a rotating fund of Rs. 26 crore for purchase of coffee from the farmers in the Agency areas and this would then be processed and auctioned. The farmers would be given a third of the traded price of coffee as first instalment and it would be directly paid to their bank accounts. After processing it and sale as clean coffee, the farmers would get the balance amount, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Girijan Corporation Ravi Prakash told The Hindu .
The present quality of coffee production would yield only 50 per cent as clean coffee. Even at that rate the amount realised by the farmers would be much more than what they are getting now.
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An apex committee under Commissioner Tribal Welfare would evaluate the quality and fix the price for the crop.
The GCC has taken up extensive awareness campaign to ensure all the tribal coffee farmers are registered with it. The farmers have to submit their details of bank account and Aadhaar number as part of the enrolment.
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The coffee procured from the farmers would be processed at the Coffee Board centre at Chintapalli and AP Forest Development Corporation Centre at Narsipatnam, the MD explained.
“We expect to sell 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes of clean coffee this year,” Mr Ravi Prakash said. At present coffee is cultivated in nearly 1 lakh acres in the Agency area producing 6,500 tonnes of coffee. The average yield is 100 kilos per acre. There are nearly 1 lakh tribal families in coffee cultivation. The total business is estimated at Rs. 65 crore annually.
The GCC has been given a rotating fund of
Rs. 26 crore for purchase of coffee
from the farmers in
the Agency areas
Ravi Prakash
Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of GCC