Carbon-neutral park in Wayanad to be a reality this year

Field Day celebrations of Coffee Board held; committee to identify land in the district to set up the proposed park

Wayanad District Collector A. Geetha has said that the proposed carbon neutral park in the district will be a reality this year.

Inaugurating the Field Day celebrations of the Coffee Board, which was resumed after 22 years, at its technology evaluation centre at Onivayal in the district on Tuesday, Ms. Geetha said the government had announced the setting up of the proposed park at Varyad on 100 acres four years ago and had allocated a budgetary provision of ₹150 crore for the first phase of the project.

Now, it has been decided to implement the project in various parts of the district in accordance with the availability of land, Ms. Geetha said.

The district administration has constituted a committee, including members of the Coffee Board, to identify suitable land between 15 to 20 acres in the district for the project and begin organic cultivation of coffee, the Collector added. The committee will identify the land in a couple of months.

The proposed park will have a processing unit and a marketing facility to sell the produce, Ms. Geetha said. The concerns of coffee farmers will be addressed while setting up the park. An expert team from the Netherlands had approached the district administration, and it had shown interest in procuring organic coffee and market it, she informed.

The grievance of coffee growers that interventions by middlemen adversely affected the sector as the latter harvested berries before ripening on rented land of small growers, and that it affected the quality of coffee beans would be appropriately addressed with the support of the officials of the board, the Collector said.

Coffee Board member Suresh Arimunda presided over the function.