Dimapur: North Eastern Council (NEC) Secretary Satinder Kumar Bhalla has assured coffee growers in Nagaland that measures such as water harvesting, mechanisation, modern technologies and suitable equipment will be explored to address challenges facing the state’s coffee sector.
Bhalla also called on the local administration to engage with major industrial groups, investors and exporters that could support mechanisation and automation in coffee production through suitable financial and institutional arrangements.
He made the remarks while reviewing the progress of coffee cultivation and related infrastructure under the Coffee USP Project at Tuophema village in Kohima district on Friday.
During his visit, Bhalla inspected coffee plantations and the Hi-Tech Coffee Washing Station and interacted with growers and members of the Tuophema Cluster.
He said the Coffee USP Project was designed as more than a plantation programme, describing it as an integrated livelihood and economic development initiative aimed at helping villages, societies and farmer clusters derive greater value from the region’s natural and human resources.
According to Bhalla, the broader objective is to create sustainable livelihood opportunities and enable communities to improve access to education, healthcare, modern amenities and overall quality of life.
He stressed that developing the coffee sector would require more than increasing plantation areas.
“For the sector to become commercially viable and competitive, it would require good road connectivity, modern processing machinery, efficient post-harvest infrastructure, quality assurance, value addition and strong market and export linkages,” he said.
Bhalla expressed hope that the initiative would significantly improve the incomes of coffee farmers and local communities.
He said achieving this would require coordinated efforts involving the Central and Nagaland governments, the Coffee Board, local administration, farmers, technical institutions and private-sector stakeholders.
The NEC Secretary also noted that the chief ministers of the northeastern states had collectively worked towards strategies aimed at substantially increasing farmers’ incomes.
He urged the Nagaland government and the Coffee Board to work with relevant central agricultural institutions to identify suitable intercrops and complementary farming activities that could be introduced within coffee plantations.
Such diversification, he said, could improve land-use efficiency, create additional income streams for farmers and strengthen the overall economic sustainability of coffee cultivation in the state.