New Delhi, Oct. 11 -- Coffee was first introduced in the North-East, in the mist-laden hills of Meghalaya and Assam's Cachar district, in the 1850s. It's a fact mentioned in Coffee Cultivation In Khasi Hills, a book published in 1908 by B.C. Basu, then director of the agriculture department in undivided Assam. In 1954, coffee plantations were established by Meghalaya's soil and water conservation department in parts of Ri-Bhoi, East Jaintia Hills and West Garo Hills districts. But labour-intensive cultivation and the absence of processing methods resulted in coffee losing out to tea. Arabica plants were left to grow wild and the North-East forgot its tryst with coffee.
In the 1980s, Nagaland tried to revive coffee cultivation. But the pres...