Coffee cultivation has been going on at a fast pace in Nagaland under the state government’s guidance. If sources are to be believed, the coffee plantation is being done on nearly 10,000 hectares. Some officials informed that around 8,412.49 hectares and 1,419.7 hectares of land are covered by plantations of Arabica and Robusta coffee. A target has been set to cover 50,000 hectares of land by the state government.
Nagaland has the potential to be the next hotspot for Indian coffee. This is because the state micro-climatic condition and soil is said to be favourable for coffee plantation. Let us tell you how it started. As claimed by some reports, the coffee plantation was started in Nagaland in the early 1990s. But this attempt couldn’t yield productive results as there was no market linkage with the project. In the year 2014, the state government restarted the plantation with the help of Land Resources Development (LRD). After many efforts, this organic coffee is also being exported to other places. Kohima district has reported the cultivation of organic coffee on 2649.69 hectares of land while Zunheboto district has reported cultivation on 1025.9 hectares of land.
LRD has been carrying out coffee plantations with the help of the state government and NABARD. Technical and management support is being provided by the Coffee Board said the Additional Director of LRD, Albert Ngullie. He added that even the seeds are produced from Coffee Board-certified nurseries. The Coffee Board has been extending its support in providing training to the farmers and conducting exposure trips to other states as well. While the department is engaged in expanding coffee growing areas it is also engaged with Nagaland Coffee, which exports the coffee product of the state to the international markets.
Not only efforts are being put towards promoting the plantation but encouraging farmers to adopt the practice. Besides, efforts are being put to provide barista training to promote coffee-based entrepreneurship among educated unemployed youth and to promote the establishment of coffee bars across the state. As per Deputy Director of Coffee Board, Jorhat, Assam, PP Chaudhury, the Board has been supporting around 400 coffee growers in a year covering around 200 hectares of land. As per a report in the Nagaland post, Nagaland Coffee Private Limited is the sole exporter of Nagaland coffee. The company signed an MoU with the Government of Nagaland to distribute and export Nagaland coffee abroad.
Nagaland coffee is not far away from revolutionizing the economy of Nagaland while helping the farmers progress!