THE founding all India conference of the Coffee Farmers Federation of India (CFFI), held on October 26-27, 2022 at Vellamunda, Wayanad authored a new chapter in the crop wise mobilisation of Indian peasantry. CFFI, affiliated to All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) is a federation of coffee farmers associations in major coffee producing states of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The conference reiterated the political consensus formed in the extended all india meeting of coffee farmers organised by AIKS and P Sundarayya Memorial Trust on June 11-12, 2022 at Virajpet, Karnataka that the International Finance Capital- Monopoly Capital Combine (IFC-MC) is the major enemy of the primary producers of coffee and to fight this, the peasantry should form national consortia of workers' and peasants' producing and marketing cooperatives.

The 32nd all India conference of the AIKS at Guntur in 2010, decided to take up crop specific issues and also sectional issues. The crop wise activities after the Guntur conference got more clarity at the 33rd all India conference held at Cuddalore where a commission paper on “Peasant Cooperatives and Reorganising Production Relations in Agriculture” was adopted. This commission paper and discussions pinpointed the significance of modernisation of agriculture based on establishment of crop wise modern large scale agro-processing industries and marketing networks, owned and managed by peasants and workers. The 34th conference of the AIKS at Hisar advanced further, where it was felt that crop wise mobilisation is crucial as far as to prepare the peasantry to gather collective strength and tactically advance towards modernisation of petty production into large scale production without which the petty producers cannot sustain and overcome the corporate exploitation and resultant pauperisation.

The founding conference of CFFI should be located in this larger political economy and organisational understanding of the AIKS which correctly assessed the limitations of the bourgeois agrarian programme and called upon peasants and workers to build and nourish worker-peasant alliance. Coffee is a classic case where the contradictions between peasantry as a whole and IFC-MC Combine is becoming acute after the weakening and disintegration of the post independent dirigiste regime. This is primarily because of the increasing financialisation of the coffee industry in a Marxist sense which paved way for speculation and manipulation of commodity prices and highly unequal trade. This has resulted in the amassing of surplus by a couple of coffee trading and processing monopolies which are increasingly interpenetrated with international finance capital. To counter this, collectivisation of the coffee peasantry is very important.

This theoretical understanding developed in the Virajpet meeting, further elaborated in the book Coffee is Our Livelihood had an imprint in the formulation of the conference slogans: “No to corporatisation, ensure remunerative price, promote farmers’ producing cooperatives with ensured government facilitation”. T M Thomas Isaac, former finance minister of Kerala in his inaugural address commented that the diagnosis of the coffee crisis by the CFFI is very important to understand and resolve agrarian question in India.

“The ruling class is going all out to corporatise Indian agriculture. The draconian farm laws were introduced to advance pro-corporate agenda. With the increasing clout of international finance capital in agriculture, petty producers should accelerate formation of producers' and marketing cooperatives”, Isaac pointed out. He asked CFFI to politically educate coffee farmers about the huge corporate exploitation  and thus build larger class unity cutting across political affiliation. He also released the Malayalam translation of the book Coffee is Our Livelihood, which was originally published in English earlier in August, by giving a copy to Valsan Panoli, general secretary, Kerala Karshaka Sangham.

Representing four coffee growing states, 139 delegates participated in the conference (Karnataka-20, Kerala-83, Tamil Nadu-29, Andhra Pradesh-3, AIKS national and state centre-4). There were also coffee plantation workers in the delegation. D Raveendran, P Krishnaprasad, Naveen Kumar and PK Suresh were the convenors of the presidium, steering, resolution and minutes committees respectively. P Krishnaprasad, convenor of the CFFI organising committee presented the organisational report. The report was a comprehensive document on the crisis faced by the primary producers of the coffee. It also talked about alternative policies which will ensure the livelihood of coffee farmers. The report appreciated the commendable efforts of the CPI(M) led LDF government in Kerala in facilitating value addition by collectives of the peasantry.

Delegates were divided into four groups based on their states for group discussion and it was followed by public discussion. Fluctuating prices, human-wildlife conflict, increasing cost of production, uncertainties created by the Kasturirangan Report, corporate exploitation and cooperatives as alternatives were the important  points of discussion.

The public discussion was followed by a national seminar on ‘Smart Coffee Project, Carbon Neutral Wayanad and Social Cooperative Village Plan’, moderated by Balagopalan IAS (Retd). P V Unnikrishnan, Prof Aravind, Dr George Daniel, Jubunu KR who have expertise in coffee industry presented papers. The national seminar also pinpointed the urgent need to collectivise peasantry and coffee farmers as well as to protect the environment.

The second day of the conference started with three resolutions. Resolution to implement parliamentary committee report on producer cooperatives moved by Nidheesh J Villatt, resolution on human-wildlife conflict by Dr IR Durga Prasad and resolution on increasing cost of production by A Yohannan were passed with majority in agreement in the conference.

The conference also formally approved the charter of demands drafted by the organising committee.  This was followed by a reply to the public discussion on the report by P Krishnaprasad and the adoption of the report. It was also decided to formally finalise the by-laws and flag within six months.

A central executive committee consisting of 25 members was elected. P Krishnaprasad, P K Abdul Lathhef and P K Suresh were elected as the general secretary, president and treasurer of the CEC respectively. The new committee decided to organise agitations in all 15 coffee growing districts on December 5, 2022 and submit the charter of demands to the respective district collectors. Amendment of the Indian Coffee Act, loan waivers, remunerative prices, promotion and facilitation of producers' cooperatives, resolving human-wildlife conflict, resolving all land related issues and rejection of Kasturirangan Report are the major demands raised by the CFFI.

The public rally led by the newly elected CEC was followed by a public meeting. The meeting was inaugurated by MM Mani, former electricity minister of Kerala.