Coffee production rises by 40 pc

Coffee production rises by 40 pc
eKantipur.com, 30-Jun-07

As farmers aggressively pursue commercial cultivation of coffee, Nepal recorded a whopping 40 percent rise in organic coffee production compared to last year, said officials.

Raghupati Chaudhary, acting chief of National Tea and Coffee Development Board (NTCDB), western regional office, said that coffee production this year has soared to 391 tons from 278 tons of last year.

Moreover, of the total production, Nepal exported 91.50 tons of coffee to countries such as Japan, USA, UK and South Korea, among others, this year.

“The export fetched the producers and marketers a total of Rs 5.6 million,” said Chaudhary, adding that Nepal had exported a mere Rs 2.45 million worth of coffee five years ago.

Coffee is produced in 40 districts in Nepal. Among them, eleven districts of western region alone produced 163 tons of coffee this year, shows the data of NTCDB.

Palpa, Gulmi, Arghakhanchi, Syangja, Kaski, Parbat, Tanahun, Baglung, Lamjung, Gorkha and Myagdi are the western districts where commercial coffee cultivation is practiced. A total of 12,393 farmers in eleven districts of the region are actively involved in coffee farming.

Farmers into coffee production, meanwhile, urged the government to extend technical cooperation, subsidy on seed and pesticide along with market development activities.

“The government should bring in coffee policy on time so as to support the farmers and facilitate exporters,” said Mona Bhattarai, a coffee farmer, adding that scores of farmers could easily earn their livelihood easily from coffee production if the government supported it.

However, she stated farmers presently are not getting even bio-medicines on time to control diseases.