JOIN USFederation Executive Committee Member J B Bojegowda stated in a press release that the Central government should help the coffee growers, if the industry should survive.
“Coffee growers are in distress ever since 2008 that they were in distress due to unfavourable climate and crop diseases. In 1999-2000, a total of 1.54 lakh tonnes Arabica and two lakh tonnes of Robusta coffee were produced in India. However, it is unfortunate that the production of Arabica coffee has been reduced to 50,000 tonnes in 2010-11.
Meanwhile, the production of Rubusta has been reduced to one lakh tonnes,” he explained.
The total production of coffee has been reduced by 65 per cent in the nation. Climate changes, crop diseases, shortage of labourers and burden of bank loans are the major reasons for the reduction in the coffee production, Bojegowda said. The scheme announced by the NDA government in 2002 had helped only banks to increase their profit. Growers were not benefited out of the scheme, he added.
Growers could pay only the interest with the compensation of Rs 97 crore which was released by the Central government. Similarly, medium and large scale growers did not receive any benefits from the Rs 363 crore package announced by the Union Finance Minister in the previous budget, he said and pointed out that the government had directed to release compensation to settle loans to those growers, who have upto 25 acres of coffee plantation only.