The Quality Brew: Productivity and Marketing of Coffee in India

Coffee is a major commodity of export in developing countries. In India, it generates significant revenues besides providing employment to many. This book critically looks into various aspects of the coffee production and marketing industry and its potential for promoting sustainable development, poverty alleviation and providing decent work.

The small-holder dominated coffee sector is under unprecedented crisis attributed to a host of factors like declining productivity, incidences of new pests and diseases, adverse price trends and issues related to global warming induced climate change. Supported with primary survey and secondary data, this book explores challenges related to coffee production and its economic importance in India. It analyses factors affecting productivity of Robusta and Arabica varieties of coffee-- and offers important inferences about the relationship between age and productivity of the plants and factors that guarantee high productivity. The book also sheds light on institutional interventions and the use of IT applications, along with online trading, in the coffee sector.

Comprehensive and insightful, the book will be of interest to students and researchers of agriculture studies, agricultural economics, horticulture with a special focus on spices and plantation, sustainability studies, development studies and crop science. It will also be useful to stakeholders of plantation crops, such as, growers, as well as policy makers, processors, traders and exporters at different levels.

Gana Shruthy M.K, is currently working as Assistant Professor, Department of Collegiate Education, Government of Karnataka and serving as Special Officer at Karnataka State Higher Education Council. She had previously worked at Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore. The UGC has conferred her with Junior/Senior Research Fellowship Award. She was also conferred with Senior Research Fellow (SRF) in Agricultural Economics by NAARM, Hyderabad. She is also rank holder in the state level entrance exam for the post of Assistant Professor conducted by Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) and was selected for the post of Assistant Professor in Economics. She has published in reputed national and international journals. She obtained her doctoral degree from Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore. Her area of specialization includes Agricultural Economics.

Parmod Kumar is presently Director, Giri Institute of Development Studies Lucknow while he is on Deputation from the position of Professor, Agricultural Development and Rural Transformation Centre, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru, India. He has previously worked at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi, and the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. He obtained his post-doctorate as Sir Ratan Tata Fellow and doctorate from JNU, New Delhi. He was fellow under the International Visitors Leadership Program sponsored by the US government. He has been Visiting Scholar to Glasgow University, OECD-FAO Paris, Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences Chengdu and Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Switzerland. He has authored/co-authored more than fourteen research volumes and published more than 80 research articles in refereed national and international journals. He was the managing editor of the Journal for Social and Economic Development (JSED) Springer, and at present he is Member Editorial Board of Indian Journal on Social Justice. He is also an executive member of Indian Journal of Agricultural Marketing; and Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics. He was conferred the IDRC India Social Science Research Award for the work on public distribution system. His specialization is on agricultural economics, rural development and development economics.