MADIKERI: The coffee sector is not doing well. The reasons are many such as crop damage caused by incessant rains, disease outbreaks and overall changes in climatic conditions. However, a
"progressive" farmer in Madikeri, Ponnachettira Suresh is doing well. Suresh has harvested nearly 7000 kilos of ripened coffee beans from a total of 1220 dwarf varieties of Robusta plants.
"A planter is also a doctor who treats the plants," Suresh quips.
It was in 2020 that Suresh learnt about the dwarf variety of Robusta coffee from a friend in Kolkata. Always open to experimenting, Suresh availed five seeds of this dwarf Robusta variety and he developed them into seedlings.
“Out of the five seeds, one did not survive. However, from the four seedlings, I propagated 196 dwarf plants and I have now planted 1220 plants of the same species,” explained Suresh.
With 6 feet X 6 feet spacing, a total of three acres of land was developed with the dwarf variety of Robusta and Suresh planted Gliricidia Tree for the shade across the area.
“The plants are yielding after three years and I have picked 7000 kilos so far,” he said.
Suresh explained that the dwarf variety does not require any over-the-top maintenance. “The plantation was manured five to six times, irrigated in February and March with sprinkler irrigation and a chemical spray was carried out before monsoon to avoid dropping and rotting of the plants,” he added. He opined that the maintenance of the plantation varies and depends on the condition of the soil, weather and other variants.
“I do not use complex manure. Instead, I feed the plants with only the required amount of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. These nutrients are fed by hand as per requirement. While the labour charge might increase in this process, it will ensure proper health and growth of the plant as not all nutrients are required in equal amounts,” he shared. He provides the plants with nutrients depending on the weather condition, which has helped his estate flourish.
“However, the dwarf Robusta variety has not been certified by the Coffee Board and this might be due to the lack of interest in this regard. Nevertheless, I have marked five dwarf variety plants and I will be recording the yield of these plants for the coming five years. This data will be handed over to the coffee board,” he said.
Suresh has always been a "progressive" grower and he has a 400-year-old Robusta plant known as Robusta Peridenia, a 200-year-old variety known as Coffea Congensis and other rare varieties of crops that are still yielding. He is also an avid orange grower and has won a state award for best cultivation of Coorg Mandarin.