Koraput, Odisha — In the late 1980s, when Koraput’s rugged landscape was more synonymous with isolation than agriculture, a quiet revolution began brewing in its red earth. Pradeep Kumar Mohanty, a botanist by training and a visionary at heart, turned his back on a promising academic career to breathe life into Orissa’s forgotten hills—with coffee.
Born of passion and persistence, Mohanty’s journey began in 1982 when he abandoned his doctoral research at the Central Rice Research Institute in Cuttack. He went on a solo pilgrimage through Odisha, determined to find the right soil for his “dream project”—a coffee plantation. He found that potential in Sundhiput, a remote hamlet nestled in the foothills of the Deomali range in the Eastern Ghats.
With no roads, no electricity, and no guaranteed support, Mohanty pitched a borrowed portable tent on the barren terrain and began negotiations with local non-tribal landowners. Tribal land acquisition came with legal challenges, but Mohanty navigated the hurdles patiently and ethically. By 1987, he had secured 10 hectares and began what many considered a madman’s mission.
But he wasn’t just growing coffee; he was planting hope.
Today, Mohanty’s plantation sprawls over 72 hectares and yields approximately 45 tonnes of coffee annually. Locals lovingly call him “Coffee Budha”—the Coffee Patriarch. He didn’t just cultivate beans; he nurtured communities. He trained villagers in organic farming, taught them to tackle malaria and snakebites, and freed them from the grip of moneylenders.
“When we fell sick, quacks misled us. Mohanty taught us to trust real doctors and modern medicine,” recalls Kaushalya, a tribal woman from Nuaput.
The farm remains disconnected from reliable electricity, but its spirit glows bright. Even banks were reluctant to help in the early years, forcing Mohanty to plant lentils and vegetables just to survive the five-year wait for the first coffee beans. Eventually, one bank saw the promise and offered partial funding.
Today, many others have joined the movement. Urbanites and villagers alike are now part of Odisha’s growing coffee story. The Orissa Coffee Growers’ Association is no longer a dream, but a reality.
But the journey is far from over.
Despite the enormous potential, government support remains minimal. “If Karnataka and Kerala are saturated, why can’t Odisha rise?” asks Mohanty. “We have land, we have manpower, and we have passion. I know how to do it. With the right push, Odisha will become the coffee capital of India.”
And when it does, history will remember the lone man with a borrowed tent who brewed it all into being.