Bengaluru: The anomalies in the weather this time have caused an adverse effect on the coffee plantations. In several areas of Kodagu, the coffee plants look plain and workers have to search for beans literally.
The crop is down mainly in the border areas of Virajpet taluk like Titimati, Devarapuram, Konanakatte, Sulugodu, Balele, Ponnappasanthe, Vayamudi near Gonikoppal, Nallur, Kirugooru, Besagooru and other areas.
Usually one could have found coffee beans spread in every house yard of the district in the month of January, but this time planters are struggling to fill the gunny bags with coffee beans. “We have not faced a worst condition like this. This is because of severe decrease in the rainfall last year”, said one of the planters.
The Titimati part which is at the end of Nagarahole National Park had received only 23 inches of rain last year. The condition of many other parts like Balele, Ponnappasanthe, Sulugodu were not different. As there was no humidity in the land, coffee plants don’t have beans. In many areas though, plants had flowered, they did not fructify. So, there is a drastic shrink in the crop, said another planter.
It is becoming a tough task for planters to pay labour to the workers. “Titimati area usually gets 50-60 inches of rain. We used to collect 30 to 40 bags of coffee from an acre but because of the decline in the rain last year, we are getting 2-4 bags of coffee from each acre. We could not provide fertiliser because of the shortage in rain. Hence the branches were also not as strong. Though it flowered in January, they dropped”, said Cariappa.
A similar condition is being reported from various parts of Chikkamagalur district, another coffee growing land of the state.
