Business

Indigenous People Fight Deforestation Threat With Gourmet Coffee in India’s Andhra Pradesh

The beans are grown by Adivasis of southern Andhra Pradesh state through a co-operative set up by the Naandi Foundation. (Photo: NOAH SEELAM/AFP/Getty Images).

By: Radhakrishna N S

Once forbidden by colonialists from cultivating coffee, indigenous people in southern India’s Andhra Pradesh state have won a prestigious award for their bean, which they farm while fighting deforestation. Araku Valley Coffee won gold in the Prix Epicures or Award in Paris earlier this month. The beans are grown by Adivasis or “original inhabitants” of southern Andhra Pradesh state through a co-operative set up by the Naandi Foundation. The organic farming model has benefited more than 45,000 Adivasi families, with profits from the high-grade coffee put into schools, health care and other needs of the remote community, according to Manoj…

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