INTERVIEW-India to spend 1.05 bln rupees on coffee replantation

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By Debiprasad Nayak

MUMBAI, Aug 20 (Reuters) - India will invest 1.05 billion rupees to replant coffee in over 45,000 hectares by 2011/12 to increase productivity and meet rising domestic consumption, a senior official said on Wednesday.

"The replantation programme will help to increase the overall productivity levels to around 1,000 kg per hectare," G.V. Krishna Rau, chairman of the Coffee Board, told Reuters in an interview. The productivity has come down to 765 kg per hectare in 2007/08 from 959 kg in 2000/01, he said.

Productivity had been affected to the outbreak of white stem borer disease from 2000/01 to 2004/05 and heavy rainfall during the last couple of years.

The Coffee Board is planning to replant 40,000 hectares in the traditional areas like Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and 5,100 hectares in non-traditional areas like Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

Coffee plant generally takes 4-5 years to be ready for bean production and has a life of 40-45 years, after which the yield starts reducing, making replantation necessary.

Most of the existing arabica and robusta plantations were planted during the 1950s and many of them have crossed their prime yielding age, prompting replantation, Rau said.

Each variety of coffee has a typical life span during which the yield from the bushes reach a maximum and thereafter starts declining even after best practices of farming are followed.