Shade grown Indian coffee forests are recognized world over as one of the most diverse forests on planet earth. These biodiverse rich parks are a symbol of wilderness, harboring a wide variety of herbs, shrubs and multiple crops. Literally, it is an embarrassment of riches.
Scale and distance takes a new meaning inside the coffee forests. In fact, the scientific community has much to learn from the associative symbiosis among and between various biotic partners inside the coffee mountain. Indeed, Indian coffee forests are models for studying conservation biology because they provide for wonderful genetic variations and preservation of a high degree of biodiversity in the growing environment.
Coffee, pepper, oranges, vanilla, cardamom and arecanut grow in wild abundance. Due to the fact that India’s coffee ecosystems comprise of various multi crops, these eco friendly coffee farms have a reputation as being polyculture in nature.
The dense proliferation of trees with miles of coffee forests associated with multicrops, play a very important positive role in shaping the coffee habitat. These multi crops not only live in close harmony with the coffee forest but are largely responsible in significantly altering the micro climate of the coffee bush. In spite of the significant reduction in coffee yields due to a number of factors like competition for nutrients, excess shade, etc, multicrops offers distinct advantages in enhancing the intrinsic value of Indian coffee by giving it a unique taste of “nature “in the cup.
Not so long ago, Orange cultivation occupied a pride of place as an intercrop inside coffee plantations. This crop played an important role in insulating the coffee farmers from the volatile coffee prices and at times rescued the farmers in times of coffee crop failure.