Suresh Prabhu launching technology initiatives of Coffee Board

Minister for Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu launched Coffee Connect - India coffee field force app and Coffee Krishi Tharanga - digital mobile extension services for coffee stakeholders at a function here yesterday. The mobile app Coffee Connect has been developed to ease the work of field functionaries and to improve the work efficiency. This application provides solution by harnessing the power of mobility comprising the latest technology in easing the whole process of the field activities like digitization of Coffee Growers & Estates with Geo Tagging, collecting the Plantation details. It will also help in transparency in the activities of the extension officers and officials, transparency in subsidy disbursement and real time report generation.

The Coffee KrishiTharanga services are aimed at providing customized information and services to increase productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability. The customised services are two ways, 24 X 7 service supports. The “Coffee Krishi Tharanga” is pilot tested in the Chikmagalur and Hassan districts of Karnataka State covering 30,000 farmers during the first year and will be extended to remaining growers in a phased manner. NABARD has partly funded the Pilot project. The solution will help in to reach maximum growers in limited period, efficient, timely, customised advisory, improve the efficiency through digitisation and leverage existing mobile reach for wider delivery of improved technology.

Suresh Prabhu also launched pilot projects on data analytics, artificial intelligence, IOTS and blockchain& smart contract Coffee Board has also identified technological solutions to address some of the perennial coffee production and coffee farming issues and challenges such as rainfall, pests and diseases. Coffee Board in collaboration with EKA Analytics, a global leader in the data analytics and artificial intelligence has developed the hyper local weather forecast, pest (white stem borer) identification and leaf rust disease forecast applications for pilot testing.

Coffee is cultivated in India in about 4.54 lakh hectares by 3.66 lakh coffee farmers and 98% of them are small farmers. Its cultivation is mainly confined to Karnataka (54%), Kerala (19%) and Tamil Nadu (8%) which form traditional coffee tracts. Coffee is also grown in non-traditional areas like Andhra Pradesh & Odisha (17.2%) and North Eastern states (1.8%), with main emphasis on tribal development and afforestation.

In line with the digital transformation initiatives of the Government of India, Coffee Board has taken key digital initiatives for the overall technological advancement of the coffee sector and value chain. These initiatives are aimed at benefiting all stakeholders in the coffee value chain. All these initiatives are intended towards unlocking the potential in coffee sector by leveraging the technology and reach such as mobile. The farmers being the end user the technologies have been built on certain critical principles like ease of use, wider participation, maximize reach and benefit.

Digital agricultural extension expands farmer access to customized advisory and real time reporting through mobile apps and pilot analytics. The Coffee Board launched mobile-based solutions to digitize growers and estates with geo-tagging, enable real-time reporting and transparent subsidy disbursement via the Coffee Connect field app, and deliver two-way 24x7 customized advisory services through Coffee Krishi Tharanga; parallel pilots in data analytics, artificial intelligence, IoT and distributed ledger technologies aim to provide hyper-local weather forecasts and pest and disease predictive tools to improve productivity and sustainability.