Help for eco-conscious Indian farmers
We all like those who are kind to the planet, don’t we? There are growing calls for locally sourced produce in restaurants and supermarkets and demands for those who produce food stuffs to give a care to the impact their processes have on the environment.
In India, the government is giving their coffee farmers an incentive to use ‘green’ technology when they produce their coffee blends. As you might imagine, this incentive takes the form of a subsidy. If the farmers use certain processes, then they could qualify for this financial assistance.
The sort of programme that the Indian government is seeking to encourage is the use of eco pulpers, which reduce the use of water and also worm compost beds, which avoids the use of expensive fertiliser. The eco pulpers, however, are a costly outlay for farmers and so there is a move to try to discount the price of this equipment, apparently, by between forty and fifty percent.
Of course, if these more environmental methods are used, then there is less chemical impact on the environment. Use of worms, for instance, to break down compost is a simple and cheap way to conserve resources. Another advantage comes from these methods – the coffee quality is also likely to improve, which has an impact on the ability of farmers to charge more for their products and also, consequentially, earn a higher profit into the bargain. It seems like something of a win-win situation!