ISRO assisting Coffee Board in assessing carbon footprint

Coorg, Jun 20 (PTI) The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is assisting the Coffee Board of India to quantify the carbon footprint of the commodity ecosystem, an official said on Thursday.

"Collaborative studies with ISRO have been initiated to quantify carbon sequestration in shaded coffee plantations in India," said M Senthilkumar, Director of Research, Coffee Board, adding that ISRO is collecting the data.

The aim is to quantify the carbon footprint of coffee amid the EU's Deforestation Regulation which requires firms to ensure that products exported to the European Union have been grown on land which has not been deforested after December 31, 2020.

The regulation has implications for sectors like coffee, cocoa, soya, wood products, rubber and its products and leather goods exports.

It proposes fines up to 4 per cent of a company's annual turnover in the EU and confiscation of products and revenues gained from a transaction for non-compliance.

He also said that the Board is taking measures through Climate Resilience and Non-conventional Breeding in Coffee centre here to produce drought and pest-resistant varieties.

Climate change poses a threat to coffee production as it impacts yield per hectare, and quality. A veteran coffee grower, Bose Mandana said the measures taken by the Coffee Board are helping the producers grow high quality produce, which has huge demand in international markets such as Japan and Korea.

Jeena Devassy, Divisional head genetics and plant breeding, said lot of work is underway for further improving the quality of the commodity.

She said India is mainly producing shade-grown coffee, which is environment friendly.

India's coffee exports rose 40 per cent on-year to USD 1.8 billion in FY25. The production was 3.63 lakh tonne in 2023-24.

"We have come out with a formulation to improve yield and increase number of berries and retention of berries. There are three high yielding varieties on which the Coffee Board is doing multi location trials," Senthilkumar added.

The board has released 13 Arabica and 3 Robusta varieties of coffee and working on applying for Geographical Indications for around two varieties of coffee. At present, GI tags are granted for Coorg Arabica, Bababudangiri Arabica, Chikmagalur Arabica, Araku Valley, Wayanad Robusta coffees.

About 4.9 lakh hectare land is under coffee plantation across 12 states. At present, 30 per cent production is Arabica variety and 70 per cent is Robusta coffee.

Coffee growers Komal and Akshay, who are running South India Coffee Company cafes in about six countries including the UK, said that huge potential is there for Indian coffee in the global markets. PTI RR ANU ANU