Shiny-red coffee cherries in open-mouth jute bags, placed like talismans on mud platforms of homesteads, lend a splash of colour to the otherwise dull grey-brown hues of Misurigondiguda hamlet in the tribal belt of Andhra's ArakuValley. Most of the villagers are indoors, but as the laboured drone of a vehicle gets louder, they spill out and break into an excited Adivasi dialect, even as a red truck comes into view.

Joe, a member on the board of the Small and Marginal Tribal Farmers' Mutually Aided Cooperative Society, also a village resident, quickly helps pull out a weighing machine from the truck. With a register in hand, he supervises the weighing of the cherries with muted cheer and a dash of authority.

Bodaya has brought in 70 kg of cherries. A smile slips past Appalamma's lips as she realises she has already crossed 300 kg for the season. Another farmer in the throng, Govind Dalapathy, recounts how his coffee bushes are now yielding an increase of 100 kg a season.............Read more

Source web page: The Economic Times