Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has said that the income of coffee farmers in Wayanad district will be doubled in a couple of years by improving productivity sustainability.
Speaking to mediapersons here on Monday after inaugurating the concluding session of a two-day workshop held in connection with drafting an action plan for making the district carbon neutral, Mr. Isaac said the district would be made a sustainable development model for the State.
Many a time the farming community in the district did not get a good price for Robusta coffee. But when it would be branded as the “coffee growing in carbon neutral hill slopes of Wayanad”, it would fetch farmers a premium price in the world market, he said.
An industrial park on 100 acres of land would be set up in a year for processing the Robusta coffee beans to be collected from farmers in the district, the Minister said.
The coffee procured from farmers, farmer producer companies and planters would be processed here and marketed under the brand name of Wayanad Coffee. All steps would be adopted to materialise the project and the State government had earmarked ₹150 crore for its first phase, he said.
The Meenangadi grama panchayat in the district had set a model in carbon neutral project in the State and it would be extended to other parts of the district in a couple of years. A meeting of grama panchayat presidents in the district would be convened soon, said the Minister.