Navsari agri varsity succeeds in cultivating coffee

Grows four types of coffee plants at farm at Gandevi. After eight years of research, Navsari Agricultural University (NAU) has achieved success in cultivating coffee at its farm at Gandevi

in Navsari district. This is for the first time that coffee has been successfully cultivated in western India. NAU has successfully grown four varieties: Arabica, Robusta, Kaveri and

Selection-9, of which Kaveri has yielded the best results. Not only have all the four, the production is also higher than expected. The university obtained saplings from south India under a

project funded by Indian Council of Agricultural Research. “The success of research has proved that coffee plants are not limited to South India. The tropical climate of south Gujarat is

favourable to coffee. As coffee seeds fetch good price, farmers can get good return from it,” said AN Patel, research scientist and head of NAU-Gandevi. While Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and

Kerala are traditional coffee-growing states, coffee plantations have recently come up in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and north-eastern states. Among the four varieties, Kaveri has given

exceptional results, Patel stated, while adding that farmers can get up to 10 kg of coffee from each plant. NAU is researching on the possibility of mass production of saplings. Apart from

providing saplings at a nominal cost, the varsity is ready to provide technical help to farmers wanting to cultivate coffee. “The only constraint is that coffee cultivation is a laborious

job and South Gujarat has been facing labour shortage for many years. This may prevent farmers from going for coffee cultivation,” Patel said.