Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has launched two mobile apps for the coffee sector which would help farmers increase production and improve quality. The two apps are India coffee field force app and Coffee KrishiTharanga – digital mobile extension services for coffee stakeholders.
“Use of technology will help coffee farmers increase production and productivity,” Prabhu said. The Coffee KrishiTharanga services would provide information and services to increase productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability.
The applications would help provide solution in easing the whole process of the field activities like digitisation of coffee growers and estates with Geo Tagging and collecting plantation details.
The minister also launched pilot projects on data analytics, artificial intelligence, and blockchain to address some of the perennial coffee production and farming issues such as rainfall, pests and diseases.
Coffee is cultivated in India in about 4.54 lakh hectares by 3.66 lakh coffee farmers. Its cultivation is mainly confined to Karnataka (54 per cent), Kerala (19 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (8 per cent). It is also grown in non-traditional areas like Andhra Pradesh and Odisha (17.2 per cent) and North Eastern states (1.8 per cent).
Further the Coffee Board is undertaking damage assessment of coffee farmers in Kerala, hit hard by floods. After assessment, the ministry would take certain steps to help those farmers.