What is the impact of the coffee crisis on the Indian farmers?
The global crisis of plummeting price realizations below the average cost of production, over the last four years has taken coffee growers to the brink of disaster. The accumulated losses over the past few years has indebted the country’s 1, 78,308 coffee holdings to an extent that coffee farmers are no longer interested in holding on to their farms. Traditional coffee farmers are abandoning their estates and in many cases trapped by economic necessity farmers are selling their farms at a distress price. Majority of the coffee farmers own small land holdings of 10 hectares and less. It won’t be wrong to state that a majority of the coffee farmers are planning to jump off the cliff with fear and despair. So many farmers have so little for their livelihood. Just have a look at the following facts: • Total population of the Indian coffee farmer is around 1,078,308. • Let us concentrate on the figures of Karnataka state (produces 70% of India’s Coffee) only to arrive at a sample parameter:
