New Delhi: Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha raised the issue of the multiple problems faced by coffee planters in Karnataka in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

Explaining the plight of coffee growers threadbare in Parliament, Pratap Simha urged the Government to waive off interest on coffee planter loans. 

Pointing out that Karnataka accounts for 70 percent of coffee production in the country, Simha said that 98 percent of the planters were small and medium growers. He noted that while coffee and pepper  growers of Kodagu faced a lot of difficulties due to rain shortfall in 2016-17, the situation turned much worse for them for three successive years from 2018, when rains caused unprecedented havoc across the district. Arguing that floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have brought untold misery for coffee and pepper growers of Kodagu district, he said large swathes of crops were devastated by unprecedented rains this year too.

Contending that the relief provided to coffee growers as per NDRF guidelines was much less as compared to actual losses, he called for the intervention of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who represents Karnataka and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal for saving the coffee and pepper growers from deep distress. 

Maintaining that about 3,000 acres of coffee plantation in Kodagu has been totally destroyed due to natural calamities, he urged the Centre to come to the aid of distressed growers by waiving off all interest on coffee grower loans.