Tucked away in the highlands of Eastern Ghats of Hukumpeta mandal near Araku Valley, about 130 kilometres from Visakhapatnam, is Boini Sanni Babu’s four-acre field, which grows speciality coffee that travels the world.
Under the towering shade of silver oaks interspersed with guava, sapota and other 10 varieties of fruit and forest tree plantations, Sanni Babu’s farm has been producing microlots (a traceable, exclusive coffee produced through outstanding effort and great care) that are consistently ranked among the best coffees in India year after year. With good crumb structure and excellent water holding capacity, his farm yielded a bumper crop of 3,300 kilograms of crimson red cherries this season.
Sanni Babu bagged the best farmer family award on the basis of regenerative agriculture practices at the recently-held Gems of Araku Festival, an annual harvest festival curated by Hyderabad-based Naandi Foundation. The foundation is instrumental in introducing regenerative agricultural methodology in the region and taking coffee from this remote region to the world.
