Speaking at the annual conference of the Karnataka Planters' Association in Bangalore, he said the coffee sector had been allocated a sum of Rs 750 crore (Rs 7.5 billion) in the 11th plan (2007- 2012), up from Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) in the previous plan.
In the 11th plan, replantation in 70,000-80,000 hactares in coffee producing regions is proposed to be taken up.
Ramesh said a new variety of coffee -- the first in 21 years --
is slated to be released in December, while sequencing of coffee genome has also been taken up to help understand it better.
Stating that labour shortage is going to be a major problem for the coffee industry, he said the Coffee Board had entered into an agreement with IIT Kharagpur to develop cost-effective, affordable farm machinery for small growers.
"Pruning, weeding, picking and various operations...we want to see whether we can actually mechanise", Ramesh said.
