Union Budget 2026: Karnataka Planters’ Association, farmers expect climate-linked insurance cover for coffee

The Karnataka Planters’ Association (KPA), an apex body representing growers in the coffee heartlands of Chikmagaluru, Hassan, and Kodagu, which account for more than 70% of India’s entire coffee production, has strongly demanded the inclusion of coffee farms under a weather-linked crop insurance plan.

M. Salman Baseer, chairman of KPA, told The Hindu that the apex body has been requesting the government to include coffee under a climate-linked insurance plan, considering the crop are being badly hit by droughts or floods year after year.

Excessive rain

“We hope the upcoming Budget will hold some good news for coffee farmers in Karnataka in this regard,” anticipated Mr. Baseer, adding that incessant and excessive rains over the last several years have caused havoc on coffee plantations, resulting in significant crop- and plant losses in Karnataka.

Pradeep Poovayya, a coffee farmer from Kodagu and an executive committee member of the Coorg Planters’ Association, said currently, coffee, rubber, and tea are not covered under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), which provisions 80% to 90% of premium payments by the governments. “These crops come under the Ministry of Commerce and not the Ministry of Agriculture. This is an unfair classification. While black pepper, coconut, arecanut, and paddy are covered under PMFBY, coffee is not,” Mr. Poovayya highlighted.

Arvind Rao, former chairman of KPA, also noted, “Coffee farming in India is completely dependent on rain and shine. However, unpredictable and extreme weather adversely impacts production, and that has been happening every year for the last many years.”

Input and labour costs

According to Rana George, Managing Director of Kelachandra Coffee, which grows Robusta and Arabica across 7,000 acres of land, climate volatility, rising input and labour costs, and new export compliance requirements are increasing pressure across the value chain.

“The Indian coffee sector needs support that strengthens growers while elevating India as a premium global origin. The Budget can make a meaningful difference through focussed investments in climate resilience, crop advisory and irrigation support, research on high-yield and climate-tolerant varieties, and easier access to long-tenure credit for replantation and farm modernisation,” Mr. George added.

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Policy-based approach

Mr. Poovayya said farmers’ lands were often subject to the vagaries of nature, such as fire, floods, landslips, and earthquakes. However, the government only offered short-term relief instead of having a policy-based approach.

“We want regulatory changes to ensure coffee is included under PMFBY, and climate-related crop and land losses should be covered under the National Disaster Relief Fund,” he said, adding that farmers currently receive a meagre ₹35,000 (a sum fixed several decades ago) per hectare of farmland lost and ₹7,000 per acre for crop loss. “These are fixed based on archaic calculations,” Mr. Poovayya said.