Coffee Cultivation in Jampui Hill of Tripura

Introduction

      Finally Coffee! Yes. Coffee has made its home to Tripura at Jampui hill during the years 2002-2003. It has finally been implemented with the financial assistance of tribal welfare department and technical know how of the Coffee Board, India.
     Coffee Board, India also provided subsidy amount to the coffee growers based on the size of the coffee plantation. 

      Now the coffee plantation has reached to the bearing stage and people of the Jampui hill had already sold their products in consultation with the Coffee Board. Initially,  Coffee Board had helped to sale the clean coffee to the nearest Regional Coffee Research centre at Kolashib, Mizoram.

     Now, it is heard that people of the Jampui hill had started selling their produce to the nearest state like Assam in the cleaned coffee.

Reason to start Coffee Cultivation

    The reason for taking up of coffee plantation was started or initiated by the Coffee Board, India that is Coffee Board India has recommended that Jampui hill can sustain coffee plantation due to its inherent soils and climatic condition.

     Based on the recommendation of the Coffee Board, India, the state government in tribal welfare department had initiated the coffee plantation proposal in conformity with the tribal welfare scheme.

     Initially, 150 families had been selected and brought under the scheme at Jampui hill covering Tlakshi, Hmanpui, Vanghmun, Belianchip, Subual and Phuldongsei. The Coffee Board, India had started their technical advice starting from seed bed preparation to the planting stage.
     Their relentless pursuit in consultation with the state tribal welfare department had brought the smile to the gloomy face of the Jampui hill people who had just been reeling under the suspicion due to destruction of their primary bread earner the orange orchards.

Place to Start Coffee Cultivation

  Initially Jampui hill and Sabroom subdivision were selected for coffee plantation under settlement scheme of government of Tripura. Accordingly, the scheme had been started with these two places accordingly. Of course, there are other existing plantations maintained by the Coffee Board in the state.

     In addition, Coffee Board, India had also visited many other places for finding out the suitability condition for coffee plantation in Tripura however, that could not be ascertained due to various factor like availability of shade trees and land status of the particular place and people’s acceptability etc.

    The department of Tribal Welfare considers the coffee scheme at Jampui hill as successful one due to successful implementation in terms of survival of coffee seedlings in the site and subsequent earning from the coffee plantation.

Sentiment of the People

     People of the Jampui took a sigh relief at the crucial time the where they were very worried for their farming future due to onslaught of orange orchards at Jampui hill after the mysterious appearance of disease that wiped out several orange plantation in Jampui hill.

     This approach by the state government has helped the people of Jampui Hill particularly the beneficiary who had been selected for the coffee project to come out of the acute financial shortage in term of employment and in come source in the hilly region where these are very difficult to get.

Technical Guidance

   Technical guidance for coffee plantation had been taken over by the Coffee Board India, government of India. The board had time to time visited the plantation sites and given the every nuances of the coffee growing to the beneficiaries.
   The tribal welfare department government of Tripura also helped financially and provided constant help to the beneficiary for time to time operation of coffee plantation as per the advice of the Coffee Board India.

      In addition, the Coffee Board India also provided marketing tips including harvesting and processing of green coffee berries to the beneficiaries in the Jampui hill.

Financial Assistance

   Financial assistance in the form of schematic amounts and subsidy amounts had been paid to the beneficiaries by the tribal welfare department and Coffee Board. These financial assistance had been released in phased manner time to time based the specific requirement for coffee plantation as suggested and advised by the Coffee Board, India.

     The tribal welfare department had also acted based on the recommendation of the Coffee Board for ensuring that the coffee plantation comes up successful in the Jampui hill.

Marketing Avenues.

   As far as marketing of the product produced from the Jampui hill is concerned, the nearest marketing point is at Silchar, Guwahati of Assam state and Kolashib of Mizoram state. In India the main trade centre for coffee in India is in southern region that is at Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

     The people of Jampui hill take the help of kolashib, Mizoram for marketing of their produce being the nearest point of Marketing Avenue moreover, in Kolashib; there is regional Coffee research centre of government of India.

     It is from Kolashib, the processed coffee beans are marketed to elsewhere in India however, and there is no independent marketing body that is yet to come up in the region due early stage of exploration of coffee in this region.

Future Prospect

    Though it is too early to predict the future prospects of the coffee plantation in Tripura but there is no denying that people of the Jampui hill had already started reaping the good harvest and return from their coffee plantation.

     At present, total coffee plantation in the state is approximately 317 ha out of which Arabica coffe-268 ha, Robusta coffee 49 ha. Out of the 317 ha coffee plantation, 194 ha (Arabica coffee) and 15 ha (Robusta coffee) are in bearing stage.

    However, the total coffee production in the state is only 23.00 M.T (clean coffee) out of which 20.00 M.T from Jampui hill.

   There have been reports that coffee growers of Jampui hill are pursuing for coffee bean processing machineries with the financial assistance of the government for increasing the clean coffee production in the Jampui hill.

      The Coffee Board, India had already recommended the Jampui hill Tripura suitable for coffee plantation taking into the consideration of the climatic condition, soil fertility, topographical condition and many others as is required for coffee plants to grow successfully.

    Coffee! Awareness of coffee is restricted only in urban areas (in Tripura), let it spread and known by all.

    Agritangkol dated 30.12.2011 at 10.00 A.M