KOCHI: It was a stunning beginning to a perfect brew. Aroma and all.
Two years ago when the Dutch team visited Wayanad, they took back two samples of coffee beans -- One from Brahmagiri and the other from Biowin Agro Research.
"We gave them our best beans," recalls a member of the Climate Smart Coffee Project.
“But we were stunned when the results came in. One scored 83 cup scores, the other 86. That’s among the finest grades in the world. Specialty coffee starts at 80. Normally, our coffee gets a 52 cup score," the member added.
This led to the beginning of a cooperative-led coffee revolution.
With the Kerala government’s long-envisioned Wayanad Coffee Park finally coming to life, a bold new chapter is being scripted in India’s plantation economy -- one that centres around smallholders, not estates; sustainability, not volume.
Early in its planning, the project toyed with the idea of two governance models: the famed Anand/Amul dairy cooperative model of Gujarat, and the public-private model of Cochin International Airport Ltd.
After detailed deliberations and field engagement, the team chose Amul model.
“We looked at what fits our reality,” explains G Balagopal, head of the Climate Smart Coffee Project. “Over 60% of Wayanad’s 60,000 coffee farmers are small, marginal or tribal. They don’t own estates like in Coorg, across the district in Karnataka. The only way they gain power is through aggregation. The Anand model does that.”
Groundwork and Governance
The cooperative structure is being built from the bottom up: Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) of 5–10 farmers feed into Farmers Interest Groups (FIGs), which are mentored by representatives from local dairy societies and the project, explains Prakash Madhavan, an advisor to the project. Above JLGs sit Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) -- six in total across Wayanad’s three taluks. Four are general-purpose, while two are reserved: one for tribal farmers and another exclusively for women.
An apex district-level federation will unify them, with a strong mentoring layer. Farmers will eventually gain shareholding rights in Kerala Coffee Ltd, a state government special purpose vehicle set up under the Plantation Department to lead the development of the Coffee Park.
Coffee Park: The Hub of a New Ecosystem
Spread across 20 acres in Kalpetta, the Coffee Park will house processing units, a cupping lab, a sustainability testing centre, and a coffee experience centre complete with a museum and café. At its heart will be a lake, around which tourists can engage with the coffee journey -- from bean to brew.
An incubation centre for coffee startups, in partnership with NIT Calicut, is also on the cards. The goal? Spark youth and women entrepreneurship in everything from specialty roasts to coffee-based cosmetics and even textiles.
“It’s Not Just Coffee -- It’s Climate Resilience”
“This isn’t a plantation revival,” says Madhavan, who is a retired joint Dairy Development Director, using his experience in the dairy sector to good use to bring together coffee farmers.
“It’s a coffee-centred agroforestry model that counters climate change.” He notes that coffee’s ability to thrive in shade and conserve biodiversity makes it ideal for Wayanad’s terrain -- unlike tea or other crops, coffee plantations rarely suffer landslides.
The project originated from Meenangadi Panchayat, Kerala’s first carbon-neutral initiative launched during T M Thomas Isaac’s tenure as Finance Minister. When full carbon neutrality proved difficult for farmers, the idea evolved into “climate-smart agriculture” -- with coffee as the flagship crop.
From Strip Plucking to Specialty Coffee
Changing how coffee is harvested is key. “Earlier, we did strip plucking -- red, green, yellow, all at once,” says Madhavan. “Now, farmers are trained to pick only ripened red beans for specialty grade. It’s slower, more labour-intensive, but it earns far more.”
Already, 2,000 farmers have been onboarded into the training and aggregation system, many through existing milk cooperatives, which cover 20,000 families in Wayanad. “Most of them already grow coffee,” says Balagopal. “We’re just connecting the dots.”
Wayanad’s Global Ambition
The global coffee market is volatile, with prices set on futures exchanges. Indian coffee often fetches poor prices due to lack of quality segregation. But the Climate Smart Coffee Project wants to change that.
“Wayanad produces about 50,000–60,000 tonnes of coffee annually, yet most farmers don’t know their bean’s cup score,” says Madhavan. “But we found that our Robusta parchment coffee scores 10 grades higher than expected. In fact, Robusta is now more profitable than Arabica due to its climate resilience.”
The strategy is to brand 'Wayanadan Kappi' as a premium Indian Fine Robusta (WIFR) -- a move that recently saw its debut at the World of Coffee expo in Copenhagen.
A Future Beyond Beans
The long-term plan? Train 15,000 of Wayanad’s 60,000 coffee farmers in quality control, traceability, and value addition. Provide digital disbursement tools, climate advisory services, and establish a local processing ecosystem so that more than 90% of coffee’s value addition, which currently happens outside Kerala, stays with the farmer.
“The average farm-gate price is just 5–7% of the final retail price,” says consultant Ajit Mathai. “That must change. With quality-linked payments and proper processing, we can put Wayanad on the world map -- just like Araku Valley did for Andhra.”
He adds: “This is not idealism. It’s already happening on the ground.”
In two years, the full Coffee Park will be functional. But training, aggregation, and branding are underway now. As one farmer recently quipped after a cupping session, “We didn’t know our beans were this good. Now we won’t sell them cheap again.”
And that may be the truest sign yet -- that Kerala’s coffee revolution is not just brewing, but already pouring into the cup.
Farmers Engaged:
2,000 small and tribal farmers already onboarded
15,000 targeted in the next phase
Cooperative Structure (Amul Model):
---------------------------------------------------
Individual Farmers -- Joint Liability Groups (JLGs)
Farmer Interest Groups (FIGs) -- 6 FPCs (incl. tribal & women-led)
Apex District Federation
Coffee Park Highlights (Kalpetta, 20 acres):
-----------------------------------------------------
Coffee Experience Centre & Lakeside Café
Cupping & Grading Labs
Startup Incubation Hub (NIT Calicut tie-up)
Coffee Museum & Micro-lot Demonstration Plots
Eco-tourism integration