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Coffee growers demand release of pending subsidy

Rs 84.95 crore yet to be released
Last Updated 05 August 2017, 18:38 IST

A delegation from the Coffee Board, led by its chairman M S Boje Gowda, has urged Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to release the pending subsidy of Rs 84.95 crore to growers.

In a memorandum submitted to him here, Gowda said that though Rs 600 crore was allocated as subsidy in the 12th Five Year Plan, around Rs 84.95 crore is yet to be released.

If the government releases this amount, it would help distribute the amount among coffee growers mostly in Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan districts of Karnataka, he said in a statement.

The Coffee Board has been giving subsidy to growers towards developmental activities, including plantation, building godowns and setting up of irrigation facilities.
The coffee growers have been demanding that the Centre come to their aid following a drought-like situation in coffee growing areas and the withering of Arabica plants. This year, the drought is likely to affect coffee production by 30% to 40%, said a grower.
Karnataka is a major coffee growing state in the country with production of 2.51 lakh tonnes in 2015-16 while the post monsoon estimate for the year 2016-17 will be 2.26 lakh tonnes.
The reason for the drop in production estimates of 2016-17 is attributed to the delayed blossoms and backing showers coupled with high temperatures. The first spell of summer (blossom) showers were received only during April and these showers were scanty and isolated, said the Coffee Board in its website.

The hot and humid weather coupled with insufficient showers resulted in poor blossom especially in Robusta. The growers were unable to take up irrigations to top up the scanty showers due to drying up of most of water resources.

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(Published 05 August 2017, 16:47 IST)

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