Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 3
On the request of Secretary, Finance & Land Resources Department, Y. Kikheto Sema, IAS, the Coffee Board of India (CBI) has agreed to depute one of its officers to Kohima to be attached in the Land Resources Department (LRD).
The officer will co-ordinate between Nagaland and CBI for development of coffee in the State, it was informed.
The Secretary had met the CEO & Secretary, CBI, Srivatsa Krishna and Director Finance and Research, CBI, Dr. Raghuramulu at Head Office Bangalore on January 2.
During the meeting, followed by a letter of request to the CBI, Kikheto appealed for setting up of Coffee (Arabica) Research & Training Centre in Nagaland since Arabica coffee was found to be climatically more suitable for Nagaland.
He told the CBI officials that the required land would be provided by the Nagaland Government. The LRD Secretary said that the Nagaland Government was projecting development of 50, 000 hectares of coffee plantation in the State by 2030.
Coffee plantation on a large scale would improve the economic condition of the rural people and would generate employment opportunity to the unemployed youth, he maintained.
Kikheto also apprised the CBI officials that the State was also providing required amount of budget from the current year 2017-18 for coffee development in the State. The Secretary also reiterated his request to the CBI to provide assistance to the coffee farmers for the initial 2-3 years for maintenance.
He attributed the failure of coffee in Nagaland during 1984-85 to market linkages and coordination issues. However, Kikheto added that marketing issue has been sorted out with a South African based company through a Memorandum of Understanding and that seven metric tonne of Nagaland Coffee would soon be reaching Cape Town by offshore.
He thanked the CBI for deputing its officials to Nagaland last year and expected more technical guidance from their expertise. He said that the Land Resources Department as the nodal department for development of coffee in the State had enough manpower provided they were imparted technical skills.
The CBI officials had also agreed to the Secretary’s request to increase coffee seeds to 3000 kgs this year as against 2400 kgs provided last year and 400 kgs provided previous year.
