Coffee Board announces replanting subsidy

The Coffee Board has announced that it will implement the replanting the subsidy scheme during the Tenth Plan Period with effect from 2002-03.

According to a statement from the Coffee Board, this is being done to encourage the small Arabica coffee growers who take up replanting of old and unproductive Arabica coffee plants with improved Arabica selections suitable to the zone concerned.

"There have been repeated representations from the growers demanding relaxing conditions earlier stipulated in the replanting subsidy scheme. They have hence been relaxed and modified for implementation in the financial year 2005-06. It is not feasible to replant the given area as per the existing modalities and large-scale filling up of vacancies necessitated by the removal of the white stem borer-affected Arabica plants," a statement from Coffee Board noted.

The small Arabica coffee growers who have taken up replanting of Arabica coffee through gap or vacancy filling to the tune of over 30 per cent in an unit area of their estate during 2004 and 2005 planting have been urged to benefit from the subsidy.