Black pepper spices up income of Adivasi coffee farmers in Andhra Pradesh
Their interest in this crop has increased over the last three to four years, following a significant rise in its price; pepper prices are ruling around ₹650 a kilogram as against the coffee’s ₹450
Spices
Related News :-
Venkataiah, a veteran coffee farmer at Chinabarada village, has noticed his peer next door has just earned Rs 30,000 by selling a bag full of black pepper. “Oh! Did they earn so much on a single bag? It acted as a great attraction not just to me but to my fellow farmers as well,” he says.
“If three bags of pepper come, those three bags bring them a lakh rupees, even after deducting expenses, there will be 50,000 in hand,” he says.
Pepper, which is being grown as an inter-crop with coffee plantation, is spicing up the income of Adivasi farmers in the Eastern Ghats. Though it is a normal practice in other coffee-growing areas to grow black pepper as an intercrop, the Adivasi farmers in coffee are just realising how important the spice crop is to augment their revenues.
Their interest in this crop has increased over the last three to four years, following a significant rise in its price. The pepper prices are ruling around ₹650 a kilogram as against the coffee’s ₹450.
Though not quite enthusiastic about this crop till recently, farmers have seen its potential as the prices are shooting up over the last two to three years. From about ₹400 a kg in 2023, the price now rules at ₹650, significantly increasing the farmers’ incomes.
Farmers say pepper turned their prospects around as it yields around 150-200 kg an acre, ensuring good financial support.
P Kannababu, a 51-year-old farmer from Pedabarada village, which is 110 km away from Visakhapatnam, has factored in black pepper as an inter-crop crop right from day one on his new one-acre coffee plot. Showing the coffee plants, grown under the shadow of silver oak trees, which are ripe for harvest later this year.
Satyanarayana D, a veteran Adivasi farmer from the same village, manages five acres of coffee and pepper, with an average annual income of ₹2 lakh per acre from coffee and an additional ₹60,000 each from pepper.
Organic certification
Kalpana Kumari, Managing Director of Andhra Pradesh Girijan Cooperative Corporation (GCC), has said that black pepper will be the second crop after coffee to get the Organic Certification. “As it grows in the coffee plantations that are certified as organic, it becomes easy for black pepper on the same field to get that tag,” she said. This move towards organic certification is expected to fetch higher prices for farmers.
The GCC, however, doesn’t procure this spice crop as there is enough appetite for it in the market.
Tata Consumer Products Limited, which has agreed to purchase 10 tonnes of organic Araku Coffee from the GCC, has also expressed interest in procuring black pepper and other products as soon as it receives the organic certification, Thanga Srinivasa Rao, Senior Manager (Coffee) of GCC, said.
Out of the total area of 2.5 lakh acres of coffee in the Agency area, about 6,000 acres of coffee plantations received the organic certification. The GCC is planning to expand the organic certification coverage for the entire coffee area over the next few years.
2025-09-03
By
Anushka Tripathi
.avif)
.webp)
.avif)
