KOCHI: Waking up to the aroma of coffee may not be practical these days, as erratic weather, which is wreaking havoc on output, brews up blow-your senses prices. Wayanad, in particular, is facing challenges due to high daytime temperatures and insufficient rainfall, putting its coffee production at risk. Price of the robusta variety, which accounted for 97% of Kerala’s output of 70,000 tonnes in 2022-23, has reached historically high levels.
The world’s eighth-largest coffee producer, India mostly grows robusta coffee, which is commonly used to produce instant coffee due to its bold and bitter taste profile, while the relatively costly arabica coffee is favoured by high-end cafes for its nuanced flavours. Anand M V, a coffee farmer in Kalpetta, lamented the continued absence of rains since January 5, which has depleted his pond, which was already running thin from meagre precipitation last season.
“It’s a challenging scenario. While coffee prices have been soaring to unprecedented levels, my plants are languishing.Without immediate rainfall, I dread not only for the harvest but also for the survival of my plants,” he told TNIE. Anand stressed how successive years of deficient rainfall in Wayanad have resulted in a decline in groundwater levels, impeding irrigation in plantations. “I irrigated my eight-acre plantation in February, and ever since, my dependable water source, which has sustained me for over four decades, has dried up.
I’m unable to provide irrigation, and the plants are wilting under the scorching sun,” he bemoaned. The farmgate price of robusta coffee’s dry cherry has surged to Rs 202/kg, while robusta clean coffee has crossed Rs 350/kg.
Ajoy Thipaiah, chairman of the coffee committee at the United Planters’ Association of Southern India, highlighted the severe shortfall of rainfall in the nation’s coffee-growing regions this season, coupled with unusually high daytime temperatures.”The unprecedented heat in coffee-growing areas is unprecedented and detrimental to coffee plants and their flowers. Robusta, being extremely sensitive to climate, will suffer greatly in the conversion from flower to fruit without the ideal microclimate,” he explained.
Ajoy noted the erratic climate of the past few years, besides a decrease in stocks in the pipeline. He further mentioned that robusta currently commands a higher price than arabica. A 50kg bag of robusta parchment is now fetching between Rs 15,300 and Rs 15,800, compared with around Rs 8,500 to Rs 9,000 last year.
Agro-meteorologist Dr Gopakumar Cholayil emphasised the importance of blossom showers and backing showers for coffee production. “Coffee requires 20-40mm of rain in February to initiate blossoming, which fills the plantations with white flowers, and 50-75mm in March-April for fruit setting, known as backing showers. Large plantations resort to irrigation in the absence of rainfall, leaving smallholders with limited options,” he elaborated.
Gopakumar, formerly with Kerala Agricultural University’s College of Climate Change and Environmental Science, noted significant changes in Wayanad’s land-use pattern and highlighted an inverse relationship between temperature and coffee yield.”The higher the daytime temperature, the lower the yield. Further research is needed to understand how climate change will impact the quality of coffee beans,” he stated.
Coffee is grappling with the effects of climate change, he added, with some researchers projecting that the most suitable land for coffee cultivation will decrease by more than half by 2050.