The 219th Coffee Board Meeting with Chief Minister Dr Neiphiu Rio, hosted by the Department of Land Resources, was held on September 3 at Vivor Hotel.
Addressing members of the Coffee Board of India, Dr Rio said coffee plantation in Nagaland began in the 1980s with the support of the Coffee Board of India but “failed not because of the farmers but because the Coffee Board could not manage it.” He expressed hope that with the Coffee Board returning to help the Department of Land Resources regrow coffee, “the state will produce a lot of coffees, as there is a potential for coffee plantation in more than 10 lakh hectares of coffee.” Dr Rio also added that the Vitsik Bharat 2047 initiative “can also give a challenge to make coffee an identity to the state of Nagaland.”
Highlighting the diversity of local agriculture, he noted that farmers in Nagaland also produce exotic fruits such as avocados, persimmons, kiwi, dragon fruits, and pineapples.
The Chief Minister further pointed out that the state faces challenges due to the Naga political issue, which has “resulted in no investors to all the industries of the state.”
He cited examples of the Nagaland Paper Mill, partnered with Hindustan Paper, which “failed and could not be revived, leaving the bamboos that were rolling out to die out and go to waste,” and the Sugar Mill Factory in Dimapur town, which “failed due to congestion and could not function, as there was no places to cultivate sugarcane.” He assured, however, that “it may take a while for industries to come in the state as the potential of raw material are available locally that has no problem of transport, and raw materials cannot be imported due to produce equality and price competition.” Dr. Rio also mentioned the state’s vast deposits of petroleum, natural gas, rich minerals, and mountains of limes and marbles.
Emphasizing the role of farmers, Dr. Rio said that “without industries and without import, the potential and the most viable were the farmers themselves,” urging them to utilize their land for coffee production and produce organic coffee, as the state prohibits the use of fertilizers.
He also asked Coffee Board members, during their field visits, to “have interaction to motivate the farmers, provide various trainings to produce the right coffee beans and provide nursery plantation materials.”
The program was chaired by Kurma Rao M, IAS, CEO/Secretary of the Coffee Board. Members are scheduled to meet with different stakeholders and visit coffee plantation farms during their three-day stay in the state capital.