Improving smallholder organic coffee production in Nepal: A case study from Lalitpur district

Coffee is one of the important cash generative crops in the mid hills of Nepal. Coffee, being an important high value crops, is mostly grown in marginal areas with minimum use of improved technologies. In line with the focus of agricultural policies, the concerned have not taken adequate initiatives for the promotion of coffee cultivation. In Nepal majority of coffee is wet processed, which is considered best method for good quality coffee. However, there is lack of updated manpower and improved technologies to work in this regard. As a result of which, quality of Nepalese coffee is below international standard. Around 65 percent of Nepalese coffee is exported, and the rest amount is processed and supplied in the domestic market. Majority of coffee is exported through personal contact of traders rather than institutionalized marketing channel. Therefore, there is gap between what policies have stated and what implemented in the real fields for the promotion of coffee.
A study was conducted among smallholder organic coffee producing farmers at Chandanpur and Thuladurlung villages in Lalitpur district of Nepal which is very famous for producing coffee. The data collected from a total of 70 respondents during the period 2019-2020 was assessed for the purpose of improving processing, marketing and export potentiality of organic coffee. These results reveal that though coffee was produced in upland with less care, it had contributed some portion of household income. Farmers should follow better management practices to ensure higher return from coffee cultivation since it is their main source of income. Further, the wet processing method was followed by coffee growers due to its quality and time involved. Though in small quantity of coffee was processed by dry method for home consumption. The cost of processing in wet method is however very high due to expensive machines used. The export of Nepalese coffee indicated that there was impressive growth in the export of Nepalese coffee due to its high value in international However there found to be several constraints in processing, pulping, marketing and export of coffee and they should be addressed for the commercialization of coffee sector in future.