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Harvesting Coffee

Harvesting Coffee: Plantation Story | Harvesting | Processing | Cure | Export

The Plantation Story

How Coffee goes from seedling to sapling to everyone's favorite beverage

Coffee is a cash crop. Coffee growing is classified as an industry; And as in any industry, every coffee estate's basic requirements can be classified under the five M's - Materials, Machines, Men, Management & Money. Coffee being an industry doesn't do away with the fact that it's basic needs are the same as any crop and depend largely on the climatic conditions, weather, altitude, water etc. the location of a coffee estate is chosen based on the rainfall, elevation, proximity to water & availability of labor. Seeds are the other basic raw materials for an estate. The seed materials are selected from the same estate or from neighboring estates, which have the same climatic conditions. The seedlings are selected from high yield and high disease resistant varieties. These seedlings are used to raise the nursery to the requirements of the estate. An estate of appreciable size, say 1 acre may raise up to 500 to 1000 seedlings. The best seedlings are chosen after they are 1 to 2 years old and transplanted' in the estate. The seed lings start yielding after 3 years, but are not allowed to. They attain full bloom after 5 years (Arabica, 6 years for Robusta). Arabica is grown at elevations between 3000 and 6000 feet whereas Robusta is grown at lower elevations. Smaller leaves & stem characterize Arabica. With respect to taste, it is milder and is preferred for export purposes. Arabica is costlier and is generally used for blending. Robusta plants are comparatively larger with broader leaves and thicker stem. It makes for a stronger blend and requires very little maintenance, if any. Arabica matures earlier but Robusta plants have a much lengthier life span when compared to Arabica.

Initial showers before the monsoon, called the blossom showers are required for the coffee blossoms to grow. For supplementing blossom showers, sprinkler irrigation systems are used. Drip irrigation systems using electrically operated motors, diesel pump sets are used for yielding coffee, intercrops etc. Power sprayers are used (Boudreaux, Foliar) for preventing fungi growth in Arabica. Tractors are used for hauling harvested coffee, timber and for ploughing paddy fields. Maintenance of coffee requires regular weeding, pruning of coffee plants, fertilizer application, shade lopping etc. Coffee requires shade to grow properly. Too much sunlight can be harmful to the plant. The trees planted for shade, besides being a source of timber, are also used for growing black pepper. Sometimes Cocoa trees are also planted. Other crops are inter-planted along with coffee. The most common intercrops are - Orange, Pepper and Cardamom. Cardamom is the crop that gives the best returns. Cardamom harvesting can take up to five months. One laborer harvests around 1Kg a day. 5000 capsules come up to 1 Kg. Cardamom can yield around 100 Kg per acre. It is then dried at 55 Celsius in drying rooms to remove the moisture. Pepper is grown on the shade trees. Around 15 tones of pepper can be harvested from a 100-acre estate.

Harvesting

Two methods of harvesting the coffee fruit are either carefully picking by hand or by shaking the tree and stripping the fruit. (In India only the latter method is used). The harvesting season starts in mid-November, when Arabica starts yielding. Harvesting of Arabica continues until mid - January. Robusta harvesting begins in January and continues till March. So, the total harvesting season lasts for 5 months from November to March.
Harvesting is completely labor dependent. The laborers are not permanent employees but come partly from different groups of floating populations. All the work has to be done by hand and is extremely time consuming. All the ripe berries have to be picked before the season ends otherwise they go bad. Due to this, each and every plantation is prepared to pay higher prices to attract the laborers. Sometimes the wages being paid will be equal to the value of the harvested crop! Even though strikes are non-existent, managing the worker's problems and making sure they turn up for work each day and complete it is a Herculean task. If one member of a family decides he's not being treated well, the whole family, including their friends might decide to work somewhere else; or if a worker from one group has a misunderstanding with a worker from another group, both groups might decide to quit work. To overcome such problems, the laborers are provided with accommodation, provident fund, bonus etc. Also, their work is awarded on a contract basis so that they can make extra money.