KORAPUT: In the hills of Koraput district, coffee is transforming lives. It is fast becoming a means to sustain livelihoods, empower communities and bring a remote region into economic mainstream.
Known for its 100 per cent Arabica, shade-grown and organic beans, Koraput Coffee is steadily moving beyond a niche product to become a symbol of economic empowerment for tribal communities in Odisha’s Eastern Ghats.
Coffee was first introduced in the region in the 1930s as an experiment but it was the district’s favourable agro-climatic conditions that allowed it to take root and flourish over time. By 2018, plantation was expanded to 2,000 hectares.
The decisive push, however, came in 2019 with the launch of the Koraput Coffee brand by the Tribal Development Co-operative Corporation of Odisha Ltd (TDCCOL) under the state ST & SC Development department. The initiative gave a structure to both cultivation and marketing. Since then, the area under coffee has grown to more than 4,400 hectares, with tribal farmers managing a significant share of 2,100 hectares of these plantations.
For the local communities, mostly tribal families, coffee cultivation has emerged as a dependable source of income. Officials of TDCCOL said their earnings have nearly doubled within a year following a revision in procurement prices from Rs 60 per kg in 2024-25 to Rs 105 in 2025-26. “Around 360 tribal families are directly benefitting and the shift has begun to reduce distress migration as more villagers find work within their own communities,” said TDCCOL branch manager Rakesh Ranjan Biswal.
He said there has also been a significant impact on women and youth participation, with 95 per cent of plucking and maintenance activities carried out by the women. “At least, 71 women are receiving direct payments in their bank accounts. The active involvement of women from tribal villages in drying units and cafe outlets also reflects an increasing gender participation across the value chain,” Biswal said.
“Coffee has given us a new identity,” says Jinu Majhi, a farmer from a village near Dumuriput. “People who once left in search of labour are now working in coffee fields. And, women are the major beneficiaries of this initiative,” he added.
With plantation thriving, TDCCOL officials said they have managed to increase their procurement nearly three-fold between 2023-24 and 2025-26, paving way for a major expansion of the Koraput Coffee brand. The corporation procured about 102.54 tonnes of coffee beans from tribal farmers in 2025-26 against 34.68 tonnes in 2022-23 and 34.41 tonnes in 2024-25 FY, Biswal said.
He said a series of initiatives have been rolled out in the recent years to expand cultivation, improve production and check distress sale in the district. Timely DBT payments within 24 hours, expansion into previously unreached areas, along with initiatives like distribution of plucking equipment among the tribal farmers, creating facilities for processing and packaging and increasing cafe outlets, have significantly contributed to strengthening the end-to-end value chain.
Besides, the Coffee Board has also contributed through training, productivity enhancement and quality improvement, while DDCD has supported in plantation expansion and shade plantation, and ITDA provided infrastructure support.
Koraput collector Manoj Satyawan Mahajan said going forward, they are now planning to establish scientific storage facilities and godowns, adopt modern processing technologies, strengthen quality monitoring mechanisms and expand into export markets for promotion of the brand and enhancing livelihood and income of tribal farmers through coffee cultivation in the district.