Nagaland to expand coffee plantation to 50,000 hectares to boost export

Guwahati, Oct 18: Nagaland government has chalked out a plan to cover 50,000 hectares of land by coffee plantation by 2030 to make its presence stronger  in the export market in European Union and Middle East.

With the help and support of the Coffee Board, currently around 8,412.49 hectares and 1,419.7 hectares of land in different districts are covered by plantations of Arabica and Robusta coffee, respectively.

The Board has been supporting around 400 coffee farmers per year covering around 200 hectares of land.

The Board is also providing market linkage of the products by bringing in buyers from different parts of India. The Land Resources Development (LRD) department is the nodal agency in cultivating organic coffee in the Nagaland.

Though Nagaland is currently producing limited quantity of coffee, the quality of the organic beverage is 'very good' and fulfilling the international standards.

The coffee plantation first began in Nagaland in the early 1990s, but initially it was not a successful mission due to the lack of market linkage.

In 2014, the Nagaland government revived coffee plantation in a mission mode across the state with the LRD department as the nodal agency. Now, the organic coffee grown in the state is being exported to European and Middle Eastern countries.