Overview

From the global perspective, coffee is not only an important beverage (2.25 billion cups consumed
everyday), but also an important commodity. It is the 2nd most traded commodity in the world, with
economies of certain tropical countries (like Brazil) heavily dependent on its production. India is the 7th
largest producer of coffee, accounting for 4 percent of its global production. There are over 171,000
coffee farms in India, cultivating nearly 900,000 acres of coffee trees. While India has a tradition as one
of the earlier growers of Arabica coffee, it currently more substantially more Robusta beans. Roughly
70% of the total coffee produced in the country is exported; hence it becomes important commodity in the
export market. However this industry is facing major crisis owing to a myriad of reason which would be
discussed during the course of this paper.
Major Issues faced
Analysis of the current situation in coffee farming in India would dish out various issues this industry is
facing today. Let us look at a few:
1. Unavailability of skilled labor: Traditionally, coffee farming is labor-intensive. But due to the latent
economic boom, youth have now migrated to cities for better paying, industrial job. For instance, between
2009 and 20111, coffee plantation sector has seen a decline of nearly 75 percent in its workforce.
Productivity takes a hit due to unavailability of skilled laborers.
2. Bureaucracy: Bureaucratic challenges have often plagued the progress of India. Land Reform Act,
1967 has laid a ceiling on land holding. In the case of coffee, the act broke up large land holdings and
allocated agriculture lands in up to 10 hectare plots to smaller farmers.
3. Climatic conditions: Climate change has directly affected coffee farms worldwide. Due to changes in
monsoon dynamics, a time may arrive when coffee may not be the preferred crop inside coffee forests.
This could pose serious ecological damage across the length and breadth of the coffee mountain. Coffee
farmers also had to face the onslaught of erratic weather: drought during the two coffee seasons of 20022003 and 2003-04 and heavy rainfall in 2006-07 & 2007-08. This led to severe infestation of pest and
disease-like white stem borer and leaf rust which resulted in significant crop loss, and also significant
plant loss of about 30-35 per cent.
4. Small Lands: In India, 90% of the lands owned by farmers have cultivable area less than 10 Hectares.
This reduces potential productivity of these lands.
5. Higher production costs: Majorly, hand-picking is preferred as against machine-picking, for quality
issues. Hand-picking requires longer times and more labor. Various farming processes involved need
capital. Resultantly, the costs of production are higher.
Recommendations
Looking at the prevalent problems, we were able to figure out a few solutions which might play an
important role in eradicating these issues. Let us have a look at them.

Technologically, we are way behind the leading coffee producers in the world. We also lag
behind in research. Hence, we can borrow expertise from some of the leading coffee producers
like Brazil and Colombia.
Traditionally, coffee plants are not irrigated. But it was recently found out that productivity could
be increased by increasing the plant density (per Ha) and using Drip Nutrigation method. Hence

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one can supply the right amount of water and nutrients to the coffee plant, in a controlled manner.
Some areas in Africa observed almost 400 percent increase in yield.
India majorly produces of robusta variety of coffee. It requires cross pollination of wind and bees
(insects); without the latter yields are lower. Also by implementing pollinator biocontrol agent
vector technology, Not only can yields be improved, the crop can be protected from important
diseases and insect pests, separately or simultaneously, as demonstrated on crops as diverse as
greenhouse vegetables, tender fruit, and some field crops
Coffee farming and trading is managed by many players like growers, intermediaries,
processors, government agencies, exporters, dealers and roasters. But these roles are not
defined and organized properly. In some places multiple roles are played by single player and
some places it is divided between many players of supply chain. Thus, makes this sector
completely unorganized and scattered. If these roles are managed, trained and streamlined
many issues could be resolved at its roots.
Unavailability of skilled labor could be resolved by training set of labors with required skill
for coffee farming. More people can be attracted towards coffee farming if they see profit in
this field. Initially government subsidy and later profit from improvement from over all
sectors could be good magnet for skilled labors. To improve skills of the farmers, educate
them on the practices of production of mold free coffee, through training programs and
distribution of literature and make stakeholders in the coffee chain aware of the significance
of the WTO agreements on food safety regulation in international trade. Familiarize
stakeholders in the coffee chain with the Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene and their
significance to any food hygiene program.
Provide financial assistance to construct, modernize or repair the equipment and on-farm
store houses for coffee, especially at estate level. The equipment like drying yards, irrigation
facilities, etc. should be provided to help the farmers fight the problems of inconsistent rain.
Small Land Issues could be resolved by asking individual labors to make a cartel, combine
their lands and do farming on large scale basis(divide profit in ratio of lands) in order to
increase productivity. Also in a group they can bargain prices from wholesaler also.
Note: This way would be more effective when some supervises them, or they are all
supplying to same vendor.
If problem of high labor cost and small land is resolved, and high end technology in
production is introduced then productivity cost will also reduce automatically.
Since only producing coffee may not be a profitable prospect, farmers should be encouraged
to do Shade farming which could also provide an alternate income generating source.

Future Prospects
India can take long strides in the production of coffee, but integrating technology with some of the
traditional farming methods. By incentivizing labor in this industry, and also by tapping overseas
expertise, coffee, as a commodity, can really be an asset for Indian economy.

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