The Agriculture department is preparing to procure coffee from marginal farmers in the district under the Wayanad package. Coffee will be procured paying a premium of ₹10 a kg than the market price of the produce, say department sources.
The government has allotted ₹50 lakh to procure 455 tonnes of coffee through the wholesale agriculture market at Ammayippalam. The department is planning to procure 250 kg of coffee each from 70 farmers in a civic body in the district.
Three agencies, Brahmagiri Development Society, Vasuki Farmers’ Society, and Wayanad Social Services Society, had entered into a memorandum of understanding with the wholesale market authorities to procure coffee from farmers in four block panchayats in the district.
The agencies will procure coffee from one or two locations in each civic body under the block panchayats from February 7 to 19. The price will be fixed after comparing the market price in the district and the agencies will deposit the amount in the bank accounts of farmers.
However, Prasanth Rajesh, president of the Wayanad Coffee Growers Association, says the procurement will not benefit the majority of farmers as over 60,000 farmers in the district depend on the coffee sector for livelihood. The scheme will cater to not more than 1,000 marginal farmers.
He says the so-called procurement is an eyewash as the total production of coffee in the district is more than 1,00,000 tonnes a year but the government is procuring only 455 tonnes now.
The government had announced that it would procure coffee from farmers at the minimum support price of ₹90 a kg when the market price of raw coffee was ₹61 a kg two years ago, Mr. Rajesh said adding that the government was yet to procure even a kg from farmers.
