Al Rm. Nagappan has been elected as the President of United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI) for the year 2019-20.
A coffee planter by profession, he manages the family business of Karrie Kollie Estate at Suntikoppa in Kodagu. Nagappan was elected at the 126th Annual Conference of the Association held in Coonoor in Nilgiris district.
Nagappan has been in the coffee industry from 1982 and has rich experience in planting industry. His involvement with the planting association has been longstanding. He is an avid sportsman, with Golf being one of his passions.
Nagappan was associated with the Mercara Downs Golf Club for many years as Hon Secretary. He served in Karnataka Golf Association in various capacities and went on to become the President of the Karnataka Golf Association
Prashant Bhansali, CEO of Kairbetta Estates, a family-run tea plantation and an orthodox tea manufacturer, was elected as the Vice-President.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / September 15th, 2019
Expecting monsoon on June 1, farmers chopped off branches of shade trees exposing tender berries to summer-like sunlight
An ‘unfortunately’ incorrect weather forecast by India Meteorological Department (IMD) has put coffee farmers in Karnataka in jeopardy.
On the basis of the Met department’s prediction of an early monsoon, coffee growers in Karnataka prepared for rains on June 1. However, the coffee estates in Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan districts are yet to see any sign of rain as on June 17.
Expecting monsoon in the first week of June 1, towards the end of May, most coffee farmers carried out shade regulation through chopping the branches of secondary shade trees on their plantations to ensure maximum sunlight on the plants during the monsoon. In the absence of rain, coffee plants are being exposed to excessive heat and summer-like sunlight.
Shade lopping (called dadap lopping, with dadaps being fast growing trees of the genus Erythrina) is undertaken just before or at the onset of monsoon as retaining thick shade during monsoon could lead to disruption of free flow of oxygen in the orchard, which may lead to berry dropping, wet foot condition and rotting of stalk.
Mandanna of Subramhanya Estate at Suntikoppa in Kodagu district says, “The entire coffee belt was set for the monsoon on June 1. But unfortunately, Met department’s weather prediction has gone haywire. A delayed monsoon has brought additional concerns to the coffee-growing community.”
According to him, coffee plantations should have ideally received 5 to 6 inches of rain in June, but, as of now, they have not received any rain so far.
“More than half of June has passed and monsoon is yet to set in. Rains are very critical for the development of berries, and also to keep white stem borer away from coffee plants,” said Mr. Mandanna, who is a member of the Coffee Board.
Shirish Vijayendra, a planter from Mudigere and former chairman of Karnataka Planters’ Association, said, “A delayed monsoon would adversely affect the coffee crop this year. Not only coffee, it has also impacted pepper flowering and corn formation, and also paddy cultivation in most parts of Karnataka. Most days are very sunny, as if we are still in summer. It is not a good sign for most crops, including coffee.”
Anil Kumar Bhandari, President of India Coffee Trust (ICT) and a large planter from Suntikoppa, said, “The delayed monsoon has added to our problems. If the rains are going to be further delayed by another 4 to 6 days, there will be a significant impact on production due to poor crop formation.’’
Coffee growers say they purchased manure in bulk to fertilise and nourish their plantations, but the task can be carried out only if the soil has enough moisture to dissolve and absorb the fertiliser.
“We are yet to apply fertilisers in our plantations, owing to the lack of moisture on the ground,” lamented Sindhu Jagdish, a small farmer from Ponnampet in Kodagu district.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Karnataka / by Mini Tejaswi / Bengaluru – June 17th, 2022
CM Bommai says focus is Beyond Bengaluru; Tier 2 and 3 cities to get importance
Davos:
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai yesterday launched the global investors meet at the Karnataka pavilion on the main promenade at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meet being held in Davos. Apart from presentations and videos, the participants were delighted to receive a packet of coffee grown in the State.
WEF Summit concludes today and Bommai has extended his stay by another day to have one more round of talks with business honchos who have shown interest in investing in Karnataka.
The CM’s delegation had taken samples of Arabica and Robusta variety of Coorg coffee and the same varieties of coffee grown in Chikamagalur. Every visitor to Karnataka pavilion was given coffee bags and a note.
“Karnataka, the GI coffee hub of India is home to five GI-tagged coffees. Along with Monsooned Malabar Arabica and Robusta Coffee, Chikamagalur Arabica and Coorg Arabica coffee showcase how Karnataka’s magical beans are globally renowned,” the note said.
Addressing investors and news agencies, Bommai said Karnataka is the safest place to do business and it is not competing domestically but at international level and listed hydrogen and ammonia fuel and semiconductors as next focus areas.
He said that nearly half of the foreign companies present in India are already in Karnataka and all of them are planning to expand and diversify in the State while many more are evincing interest attracted by the robust infrastructure, and ease of doing business in the State
Bommai said the process to decongest the State capital Bengaluru is underway by developing many adjoining areas as well as tier 2 (like Mysuru) and tier 3 (Hubballi and Dharwad) cities while four more airports would be built this year.
“Karnataka’s story is different from other States,” he said.
Bommai said Davos experience has been excellent and he has witnessed that the international investor community has recognised India as an emerging economic giant and particularly Karnataka,” the Chief Minister said. “In Bengaluru, because of the hi-tech ecosystem which we have, there are the highest number of R&D centres and our expertise in aerospace, defence, machinery tools and of course Information Technology and Biotechnology. We are also looking beyond Bengaluru for all these projects. That is necessary and work has already begun,” he added.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / May 25th, 2022
A file photo of workers in a coffee estate near Rayarakoppalu in Hassan district, Karnataka.
CSIR-CFTRI, Mysuru has developed the drink from coffee leaf and claims the brew can be an alternative to green tea or herbal tea
How about a coffee leaf brew? Sounds interesting. Coffee leaves can be used to prepare a health drink which can be an alternative to green tea.
CSIR-CFTRI, Mysuru has developed the drink from coffee leaf which it claims can be used as an alternative to green tea or herbal tea. “It is an ideal health drink to consume at any time of the day. The brew can be prepared with water which can be filtered and consumed,” the institute said.
Phytochemicals like phenolics, alkaloids, flavonoids, and anthocyanins in coffee leaves contribute to its health benefits. The coffee leaf brew mix that the institute has developed can be produced from the leaves that are pruned at the time of maintenance of the plants. They can be a good source of raw material for the drink, the scientists at the CFTRI said here on Wednesday.
Selection of coffee leaf is key as the quality of the brew mix depends on the raw material, according to the Technology Transfer Department.
CFTRI said the plant for producing coffee leaf brew mix can be set up at a cost of ₹70 lakh and the total project cost would be around ₹1.40 crore. A Kushalnagar-based coffee powder manufacturing unit has taken the licence of the product for mass production.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mysuru – May 11th, 2022
M S Boje Gowda, Coffee Board Chairman | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The 73-year-old Gowda, succumbed to bee sting as he was being rushed to a hospital
M.S.Boje Gowda, chairman of the Coffee Board, died after being stung by honey bees at his Krishnagiri Estate in Dasarahalli near Chikkamagaluru on Friday. The 73-year-old Gowda succumbed to bee sting as he was being rushed to a hospital in a car during a visit to his estate.
Mr. Gowda was appointed chairman of the board in May 2017 and has been in politics for decades. He began his career with the Janata Party and later joined the Congress. However, for the past few years, he had been associated with the BJP.
He also served the party as a president of its Chikkamagaluru district unit.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Hassan – April 23rd, 2022
Pesticides residues were found in a huge amount in the coffee powder exported to European countries. Following this, the Coffee Board has directed the farmers to control the use of pesticides on crops.
The European countries have informed that the pesticides are detected in the coffee powder and advised not to export similar products again. In this context, the Coffee Board has warned the farmers that the European countries and other importers will ban the import of Indian coffee if a similar quantity of chemical components were detected again in the products.
The pesticide Chlorpyrifos has been detected in an excess amount in the coffee powder exported from the country. Instead of Chlorpyrifos, another pesticide Phenthoate 50 EC can be used by mixing 400 millilitres of it in 200 litres of water with 200 millilitres of glue.
The Coffee Board had recommended the use of “Chlorpyrifos 20 EC at the dosage of 600 ml in 200 litres of water along with 200 ml of any wetting agent may be used just prior to the flight periods or during the early part of the flight period,” as a “last resort.”
The Kodagu coffee growers have been demanding free electricity supply to up to 10 HP pump sets installed in coffee estates across the district.
Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai (Photo | Special arrangement)
Madikeri :
The state government has announced a subsidized power supply to up to 10 HP pump sets installed in coffee estates in Kodagu. The decision was announced by chief minister Basavaraj Bommai during the Zero Hour of the state Legislative Assembly. The request for the same was raised by Kodagu MLA Appachu Ranjan.
The Kodagu coffee growers have been demanding free electricity supply to up to 10 HP pump sets installed in coffee estates across the district. While assurances had been extended by the state, the same had not been sanctioned. On Tuesday, MLA Appachu Ranjan raised the issue during the Zero Hour of the legislative session and he was supported by MLA KG Bopaiah, MLA CT Ravi and MLA Kumarswamy.
The legislators argued that the district supplied Cauvery water to the state, but it has been neglected. They argued that while tobacco and areca nut estates are eligible for power subsidy, coffee has been neglected and ignored.
Following these discussions, CM Basavaraj Bomai said, “Power subsidies extended by the state are increasing every year and it adds up to Rs 12,000 to Rs 14,000 crore. However, we understand the problems of the coffee growers, and following the discussion with the power minister and other ministers, the state will grant a subsidy to the power supply to up to 10 HP pump sets installed in coffee estates. However, terms and conditions will be released to control misuse of the same.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service / March 22nd, 2022
Maverick & Farmer Coffee opens its doors to all the coffee lovers in Bengaluru, offering a farm to cup café experience. The café serves a collection of coffee from the brand along with international cafe food. With the distinction of being the world’s first café painted with coffee, the place is a haven for coffee enthusiasts.
The centrally located café, with a serene open-air seating area, spans over 5000 sq. ft. overlooking the green expanse of the Rbanm’s Grounds. As you enter, along with the waft of freshly ground coffee, you come upon a wall that dons an interactive art experience.
Created by muralist and mixed media artist Jessica George who captures the essence of the café in a larger than life format. The coffee flower, cherry, beans and the espresso extraction are brought to life with splashes of vibrant colour with a coffee swing perched at one end that makes for a great photo opportunity.
Homegrown coffee brand is one of India’s few bean to cup companies. With decades of experience and a legacy in coffee farming, the brand conducts experiments in its estate in Pollibetta, Coorg that serves as a laboratory where some of the most inventive brews are conceptualised by the best minds in the business.
Novel flavour profiles and tasting notes are thus brought to the café with brews and blends like the – Cinnamon Almond Coffee, The Parama Cappuccino, Vietnamese Coffee, The Coffee Cherry Soda, made from the fruity part of the coffee cherry, this drink is refreshing, fruity and contains antioxidant, The Clarified Cappuccino, an 8 oz cappuccino made with the perfect milk-espresso ratio is ‘clarified’ using a technique borrowed from a different stream of food science.
What the drinker experiences is a near-clear ‘cappuccino’ infused with some fruit flavours and rosemary and last but not the least, The cold smoked coffee, served in a carafe filled with fruit-wood smoke (wood from their estate in Coorg), made using a unique and indigenously developed process to infuse cold smoke into harvested coffee cherries.
Ashish D’abreo, founder-partner at Maverick & Farmer Coffee, said, “The idea is to create something maverick, while sticking to the traditional Indian technique of coffee making. We grow and roast our own coffee to create artisanal blends using unique methods and techniques. Our in-house experiments like cold smoking and fermenting break the mold to give you a burst of fresh flavour profiles.”
Along with exceptional coffee, the cafe serves international cuisine – from The Square Burgers, Pastrami Sandwich, Pulled Pork Sandwich to Chocolate Banana Cake and Apple Pie; it’s the perfect space to hang out and unwind with a cup of coffee and terrific food.
Sreeram G, founder-partner, who has a background in advertising and branding, talking about the experience at Maverick & Farmer Coffee, said, “We aim to serve perfection in brewing to a third-wave of coffee drinkers in the city. The café tells you the story of how our coffee travels from the heart of Coorg to swanky Bangalore. It showcases our myriad coffee creations using some pretty cool single-serve brewing equipment. The food menu is light and complements our coffees while the open space of the café ensconced in greenery charms you with old Bangalore vibes.”
source: http://www.fnbnews.com / FnbNews.com (Food and Beverage News / Home> Top News / by Fnb News Bureau, Bengaluru / March 16th, 2022
The story of the coffee in India began in 1670, thanks to a Sufi named Bada Budan who was responsible for bringing it to the country.
Two hundred years after that, and with the intervention of British entrepreneurs, coffee was already becoming an important and commercial crop, planted in more than 40 estates, including the Nilgiris Biosphere.
This evolution led to the creation of The Coffee Board, an organization in charge of facilitating research, marketing, and distribution of coffee plants to the indigenous communities of the district. For a farmer, a day starts with a dark roasted coffee concoction mixed with jaggery.
Robusta and Arabica are the two types of coffee cultivated by farmers in The Nilgiris district. The coffee plantations grow at an elevation of 3500ft above sea level.
They are shade-grown and are intercropped with various crops like Silver Oak, Mango, Jackfruit, Millets, and Spices. The indigenous communities use traditional agricultural practices to grow and harvest coffee.
Bio-Organic inputs such as Panchakaaviya and Poochiverati, a concoction made by themselves are used in coffee cultivation. The producers use leaf litter as manure.
The harvest which is usually between November and March has seen a huge change recently due to varied rainfall, and it’s quite often hindered by Wild Boars and Elephants. Monkeys are also a huge problem for the villagers. The harvest is done usually by the family members who carefully strip the cherries which are then sorted and pulped manually.
Pulping in a few villages has been made easy by the coffee board by providing machines to help with the process.
There is also a provision at the Production Units of Aadhimalai where the community can use the pulping machine and the drying yard. The Coffee parchment is then dried on the rooftops and in the front yards of their houses and is roasted manually as need be.
The rest of the coffee is then sold to Aadhimalai which is an indigenous community-owned Producer Company.
The community farmers sell coffee in every possible form, be it Coffee Parchment, Cherries, Dried Cherries, or Green Beans. The average yield of Coffee in the community-owned farms would come to around 35 tons. A premium price is paid to the producers.
The coffee has a certification PGS (Participatory Guarantee System). The Keystone Foundation plays a big role in facilitating the PGS certification which is a peer review system. The coffee at Aadhimalai is then marketed through Last Forest Enterprises as Roasted Beans and Coffee Powder. However, most of the coffee is sold as parchment to other dealers.
These processes have enabled the farmer to get the best price in the market.
Aadhimalai Pazhangudiyinar Producer Company Ltd
Aadhimalai Pazhanagudiyinar Producer Company Limited (APPCL) has been initiated to anchor livelihoods of indigenous communities by encouraging traditional organic food farming, handicrafts, livestock rearing, sustainable harvest of forest produce, conservation of natural resources, thereby securing the well-being of the landscape, value addition of harvests and trading. It is a company completely owned by the indigenous communities, one of the first of its kind at a national level.
Last Forest Enterprises
Last Forest is a social enterprise that was incubated by Keystone in the year 2010. Through its operations, the company supports indigenous communities to sustain themselves by empowering their skill sets and bringing economic growth.
Keystone Foundation
Keystone Foundation works with the indigenous people and local communities as their primary stakeholders and extends to various aspects of socio-ecological development that are categorized under Community Wellbeing, Biodiversity Conservation, and People and Nature Collectives.
source: http://www.slowfood.com / Slow Food / Home / by Jestin Pauls / March 08th, 2022
The board that greeted us at the end of our 200km-odd journey from the heart of Bengaluru said School Estate. But that wasn’t our final destination, is what we realised soon. That would be School Thota, a division of School Estate, and a few hundred metres into the estate, we saw a smaller board directing us to it.
Thota roughly translates to garden in the local Kannada language. Of course, like many other places around India, there is a local language (not dialect) just for Coorg too. There are many further distinctions and groups within locals here, such as Kodavas, to which the family that owns School Thota belongs. Surely, there are many equally beautiful plantations and homestays in Coorg. But what caught our fancy on this particular drive of Volkswagen’s impressive new Taigun is the story of a German reverend who is associated with the early history of this place, including the reason why it ended up being called School Estate.
Georg Richter was the principal of a local Mercara High School. He was instrumental in mobilising local leaders in the field of education. Under his guidance, they came together and collected money to purchase around 350 acres of land for Rs 3000 back – a princely sum back in the 1860s. The aim was to fund the school with yield from the coffee and other plantations, hence the name School Estate. Since Richter was in charge, the house on the property also was built to his liking. While earlier it was only a makeshift place for the occasional visitors, the subsequent owners kept the core structure intact and built a seemingly European-style Indian home first for themselves and now extended to guests interested in soaking in nature and School Thota’s heritage.
Coorg is one of the places that still rely on roads for its connections. The drive from Bengaluru to its centre, Madikeri, is a mix of choc-o-bloc metropolitan roads followed by a busy but reasonably fast Mysore highway that you leave after Srirangapatna for a more picturesque country road interspersed with short stretches of busy towns. It was a mix that helped the versatility of the Taigun shine through. Volkswagen offers this made-for-India SUV in two engine and three gearbox options. While we took what was on paper, the smaller 1.0-litre TSI (114bhp/178Nm) coupled with a six-speed torque converter gearbox revealed the variety of traffic and road conditions. One of the biggest clichés busted was it doesn’t tire under relentless highway driving. A frugal fuel consumption figure meant we could do the entire stretch without a fuel stop en route.
Coorg roads are typically narrow and twisty, and the agile Taigun seemed up for some confident driving. Patches of bad roads were dealt with ease, as the Taigun feels planted on the move, just like its bigger stablemates. The solid German connection is there to see.
Inside School Thota, we had many glimpses of the European connection too. Its current owners – the Aiyappa family, is led by 81-year-old Saraswathi, who runs the show along with her son Kushalappa. Together not only do they manage half of the School Estate (the other half bought by another local family a few generations ago) but also keep the homestay’s heritage intact.
“The doors of this homestay are the original ones,” said Saraswathi Amma. She also pointed out that they were much larger than the entrance door, which was an extension added to the School Thota structure after the Indian family took over. “Typically, Germans are taller, which explains the bigger doors. Moreover, for us, we bend or hunch a bit and enter the house. This is also about showing respect to the house, which is a temple of sorts for us,” she pointed out. Keeping tradition alive is one of the motives of such homestays around Coorg so that you can see many old artefacts and even furniture tastefully retained here. At School Thota, even a European-style fireplace reminds you of the kind of the early occupants of this structure.
Coorg is an extremely ecologically sensitive area, and its locals try hard to maintain the balance between earning from the soil and keeping it sustainable. Plantations are not only home to various kinds of flora and fauna but also the livelihood for many locals. Agriculture in today’s times can be challenging, but families running the show have tried to improvise and keep the fire going in their Indianised versions of the colonial way of life. A few have even managed to hold on to the original way of life, just like a Taigun does by keeping a Volkswagen badge’s core values intact in an SUV that’s completely at home in India. Its Volkswagen genes are unmistakably apparent despite being born and brought up in India.
It took a visit to this place to reiterate and experience this first hand. Lesson learnt by going back to school… auf wiedersehen.
Contributed by Girish Karkera, Consulting Editor – Times Auto · Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd.
Disclaimer: The article has been produced on behalf of Volkswagen by the Times Internet’s Spotlight team.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Spotlight / by Girish Karkera / March 10th, 2022
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