Corporate Citizen claps for the tribal farmers of the Araku valley for setting a roadmap from remote Andhra Pradesh (AP) to fashionable Paris – with their speciality coffee beans
What began as a tribal youth employment opportunity has won the international Gold Medal for the best coffee pod in the Prix Epicures or the 2018 Award in Paris, France. The Araku beans have thus set their standings amongst the best that come from Colombo or Sumatra. A hill station and valley region in south eastern AP, 60 km from the nearest railway station, in Cheruvupalli village, stands farmer Subba Rao’s coffee plantation that is home to exotic coffee which was launched in Paris a kg of this coffee, though roasted and ground in Paris is actually tended and grown by farmers like Subba Rao that retails at Rs.7,000 at the prestigious Parisian café Rue de Bretagne. The brand has opened a café store in the trendy upper Marais neighborhood and is available at grocery store the La Grande Épicerie. The initiative, promoted under the Naandi Foundation, has Chairman Anand Mahindra, as one its directors. Naandi’s CEO and co-founder Manoj Kumar Tweeted, “I urge all of you to applaud the Adivasi farmers in Araku region and the @ arakucoffee team in Paris which won the prestigious Gold Medal for the best coffee pod in the Prix Epicures OR 2018 Award in Paris, France. @anandmahindra @kris_sg.” In a collaborative initiative, the 8000 km journey of the Araku coffee beans that begins in October is harvested from all the farmers in one area, is sorted and then tagged with colored ribbons to organize beans from the same terroir or the natural habitat that governs crop production making coffee production as sophisticated as that of wine making! Anand Mahindra said, “In a land of gourmets, an Indian coffee, grown by Adivasis in an underdeveloped part of India, has been ranked as one of the best coffee brands in the market. It’s time Indian food brands crack the premium segment.” The coffee connection has also touched the lives and aspirations of tribal farmers like Subba Rao’s as he said “I sent three of my children to study in Vizianagaram. Two of them have completed B.E d. They are sure to get a job soon…” With Araku coffee to soon hit domestic markets here’s three cheers for farmers like Subba Rao and their beans!
Corporate Citizen slaps India’s pathetic Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2018 ranking at 103 amongst 119 nations, falling behind even Nepal (72), Bangladesh (86) and Sri Lanka(67)!
While China is ranked 25th, Bangladesh stands 86th, Nepal 72nd, Sri Lanka 67th, Myanmar 68th place and Pakistan at 106th. Statistics aside, children in India have come under the ‘wasted’ category and as per the report, “At least one in five Indian children under the age of five are wasted, which means they have extremely low weight for their height, reflecting acute under-nutrition”. This equates India to the war-torn nation of South Sudan that has a higher prevalence of ‘child wasting’. Factsheet shows that child wasting worsened in comparison to previous years. “While it stood at 17.1% in 2000 but, increased to 20% in 2005. In 2018, it stands at 21% and is close to South Sudan’s child wasting rate at 28%. The concept of ‘child wasting’ is associated with low maternal body mass index ting in the region is associated with a low maternal body mass index, that is suggestive on the need to focus on the nutritional status of the mother during pregnancy. The report notes that, factors that could reduce child stunting in South Asia include increased consumption of non-staple foods, access to sanitation, women’s education, access to safe water, gender equality, and national food availability.” According to the GHI report, the condition of hunger in India is very serious. According to the ‘2018 Multidimensional Global Poverty Index’ of the United Nations Development Program, between the years 2005-06 to 2015-16, in a decade, 27 million people have come out of the poverty line in India.” The factsheet that has put Indian children in the ‘wasted’ brackets and yet claims to have pulled itself of poverty has therefore raised concerns. Global Hunger Index or not, the need is for nationalistic approach to pave the way for more healthier kids and prevent any ‘wastages’ to their lives anymore!
by Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar
