The 219th Coffee Board Meeting with Chief Minister, Dr. Neiphiu Rio, hosted by the Department of Land Resources was held from 3rd September 2025 at Vivor Hotel.
Chief Miniter, Dr. Neiphiu Rio while addressing the Coffee Board of India members said coffee plantation started somewhere in 1980s, with the support of Coffee Board of India but failed not because of the farmers but because the Coffee Board could not manage it, but with the Coffee Board coming back and helping the Department of Land Resources to regrow coffee, he hoped that the state will produce a lot of coffees, as there is a potential for coffee plantation in more than 10 lakhs hectares of coffee, and the Vitsik Bharat 2047, can also give a challenge to make coffee an identity to the state of Nagaland. He also said the farmers of Nagaland also produce exotic fruits like avocados, persimmons, kiwi, dragon fruits and pineapples.
The Chief Minister stated that the other issue that needed to be worked upon the state was the Naga Political issue which has resulted in no investors to all the industries of the state, the Nagaland Paper Mill, partnered with the Hindustan Paper a huge giant corporation that had failed and could not be revived, leaving the bamboos that were rolling out to die out and go to waste and the Sugar Mill Factory in Dimapur town failing due to congestion and could not function, as there was no places to cultivate sugarcane, but he assured that it may take a while for industries to come in the state as the potential of raw material are available locally that has no problem of transport, and raw materials cannot be imported due to produce equality and price competition. He also mentioned that the state have a huge deposit of petroleum, natural gas, rich minerals, mountains of limes and marbles,
Dr. Rio therefore emphasized that without industries and without import, the potential and the most viable were the farmers themselves, if they can utilize their soil and the land for coffee for production, and the state prohibiting the use of fertilizers, produce organic coffee.
He also asked the Coffee Board members when that go for field visitation to have interaction to motivate the farmers, provide various trainings to produce the right coffee beans and provide nursery plantation materials
The programme was chaired by Kurma Rao M, IAS, CEO/Secretary Coffee Board. The members would be holding meeting with different stakeholder and would also be visiting coffee plantation farms during their 3-day stay in the state capital.
(Maongtemjen, IA)
