MILAN – About 43% of the total coffee-bearing areas of Karnataka and Kerala, India’s main coffee states, are reported to have been affected by the crop loss of more than 33% during the calamities in the recent months.
In a written reply to Shobha Karandlaje, Member of Parliament from Udupi-Chikmagaluru, in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Piyush Goyal, Union Commerce and Industry Minister, said that the Coffee Board’s extension teams carried out preliminary surveys in the calamity-affected areas of Karnataka and Kerala to estimate the extent of damage to the coffee plantations due to flooding and landslides and damage to the standing coffee crop due to premature fruit drop and fungal diseases.
As per the preliminary assessment in Karnataka, out of the total bearing area of 2,26,244 hectares, an area of about 97,365 hectares has been reported to be affected by crop loss of more than 33 per cent, and an area of 620 hectares is reported to have been affected by landslides / floods.
In Kerala, an area of about 850 hectares has been reported to be affected by crop loss of more than 33 per cent and an area of about 16 hectares of coffee plantations is reported to have been affected by landslides/floods, he said.
