Dr. Deepak Khanal

Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world. Out of two most important species of coffee, Nepal's plantation is Arabica Coffee which accounts for more than 70 per cent of the world’s production. Coffee has stimulating effect on human health because of its 'caffeine' content. Along with giving pleasure to us, the powerful antioxidant it has, protects human body's cells from the damage caused by stress.

Pioneer
It was Hira Giri, a hermit, who deserved the credit for introducing coffee in Nepal. He brought the seeds of coffee from Myanmar and planted it in Aapchaur of Gulmi for the first time in the country in 1938. It is believed that the late Giri himself had been unknown about the edibility of coffee as a drink for human beings. In the beginning, the people around Aapchaur had planted coffee in their steep land just for controlling soil erosion and landslide. Therefore, coffee remained unnoticed as a curiosity crop until 1970. Later, it spread from one farmer to another and from one village to the other reaching out now to more than 40 districts across the country. The expansion of coffee farming from Gulmi to Dhankuta, Ilam, Panchthar in eastern Nepal and many other districts has now set a scene of an emerging industry in the country.

Currently, coffee is planted in a total area of 3,052 hectares in the country. This is only around five per cent of the highly suitable area of habitat relevance of coffee. It is because of the only efforts of the small farmers who have planted coffee in their tiny land as kitchen garden. But their effort alone is not sufficient to establish this commodity in commercial face. Data shows that we are producing only around 315 metric tons of green bean coffee from our plantation which is far fewer in volume than the sum of the quantity of consumption we do domestically and the amount we are asked for export.

Our coffee has high demand in the countries where Nepal's diplomatic missions are stationed. But the existing production scenario neither can address a small part of international demand nor can it minimally feed coffee to the gradually increasing number of consumers within the country. Nepal exports only 72 metric tons of green bean coffee annually in the international market. According to a report published by the National Tea and Coffee Development Board in 2018, some 61,228 hectares land ranging from 800 to 1600 metres above sea level is suitable for coffee cultivation in Nepal. Let's compare the present data of plantation with the most suitable land mentioned in the report in terms of habitat suitability of coffee crop.

This situation makes us remember the late Giri for the appropriate utilisation of the potential land for commercial coffee farming in the country. We haven't reached any further from the position where Giri had left us 83 years back. To examine Nepal's coffee in terms of price in the international market, it may be relevant to analyse the present status of its export and import. Nepal exports 72.48 metric tons of green bean Arabica coffee and earns about Rs. 96 million (tentatively US$ 0.9 million). It further shows that international buyers buy Nepali coffee for Rs. 1300 per kg. On the other hand, we import some 198.76 metric tons of coffee from other countries by paying Rs. 106 million (tentatively US$ 1.06 million). Based on this import figure, we are buying coffee from other counties for around Rs. 500 per kg. If we keep the other stories of the quality of imported and exported coffee aside, Nepal's coffee has achieved a noteworthy standard in price.

Similarly, in spite of being not sufficiently equipped, Nepal has recently started 'Quality Grading' system to assess the quality of its domestic production of coffee which can give us a preliminary scenario to claim our real situation in term of its overall excellence. Almost all coffees produced in Nepal are 'specialties' in term of quality which is a ‘mark' of international demand. For the growth of coffee production having this feature will help us to reach out to the world market and place our product in the global export business. Keeping this potential in mind, there should not be any delay to cover the geographically and climatically prospective land with coffee plants. This also becomes a true honour to Hira Giri, who pioneered the coffee commodity of Nepal.

The present plantation of coffee in Nepal is 'Arabica' species which suitably grows and yields fruit in between 800 to 1600 metres above sea level. From this point of view, we have a long range of hill region from the east to the west which is extremely appropriate for the coffee plantation. In the same way, the world market has been intensely seeking Nepal's 'by default organic' specialty coffee taking it as a coffee with premium quality. Even within the country, the number of coffee consumers is gradually increasing in a way to make the trend of consumption as a 'coffee culture'. Against this backdrop, we could establish coffee business as an industry for providing employment to many, enlarging Nepal's international trade and earning foreign currency. But, the problem within this beautiful picture in this optimistic project is the plight of the subject of coffee production.

Empowerment of farmers
The effort being made by small farmers for giving life to this commodity to the date has to be appreciated. The state should help empower them by offering a special support package. We also now have to go for commercial coffee farming. For this, youths having a vision and loyalty of entrepreneurship have to be called in this emerging industry. Likewise, the partner organisations with international support are requested to support the coffee industry in Nepal as it is looking for help in the expansion of plantation areas. Therefore, now is the time to put in our collective effort to increase the quantity of coffee production by a prudent operation of substantial plantation of coffee in suitable land.

(The author is the Director at National Tea and Coffee Development Board. deepakphdthesis@gmail.com)