March 29, 2024

Coffee may replace tea in Kanubari 

TAP | Updated: November 14, 2017


ITANAGAR, Nov 14: Coffee may soon replace tea in Kanubari if tea growers continue to be affected by low price and labour shortage, Chairman of Arunachal Pradesh State Council for Information Technology (APSCIT) and e-Governance Gabriel Denang Wangsu said on Tuesday.
“Kanubari, known for its lush green tea gardens, may soon be recognised for coffee,” Wangsu, also the local MLA, said while describing coffee as a suitable and sustainable alternative in the present-day economy.
Addressing a five-member team of officers from Coffee Board of India, state officials and public during various interactive sessions at Kanubari and Longhua village at Kanubari, the MLA said coffee offers scope for economic growth and helps maintain natural equilibrium, an official report said.
Calling upon the people to seriously take up coffee farming as one of the sources of sustenance by strictly following farming techniques and procedures, Wangsu said that forest and horticulture departments too would soon raise coffee nurseries with the help of Coffee Board.
Joint Director of Coffee Board, Dr CG Anand, who arrived at Kanubari from Bengaluru to study feasibility of coffee cultivation, said that Kanubari area is suitable for growing Robusta coffee and the success stories of other parts of India can be replicated in this region.
Describing the first coffee nursery raised by a local entrepreneur Lempho Wangjen as beginning of a new chapter, Dr Anand assured all technical support from his office. Necessary aids and advices for raising coffee plantation would be made available at the doorsteps of the farmers, he assured.
Deputy Director of Coffee Board, PP Choudhury said that the team is here as a follow-up of the initiation by Chief Minister Pema Khandu to encourage coffee cultivation in the state.
Ten to 15 farmers would be soon be selected to undergo on-field training outside the state before coffee saplings are initiated in the plantation, he said while making it categorically clear that coffee may not bring windfall of goodies but can definitely help stabilize the economy of the people.
“More than hundred farmers are already taking up coffee farming in Deomali area in Tirap district and many more are ready to venture into this cash crop,” Choudhury said.
 

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