Introduction

With the liberalization of coffee marketing in 1990s, the Board had given shape to a very innovative organizational concept aimed to bring together the small coffee growers through Self Help Groups. Admittedly, the post-liberalization era in coffee has thrown several challenges ahead on production as well as marketing fronts of coffee for the very sustenance of the coffee industry itself, particularly the small growers' point of view who constitute for 98% of the holdings, 60% of the area and 40% of the total crop production in India.

Keeping in view the challenges being ahead of the Coffee industry it is imperative to focus upon a group or collective approach that can facilitate quicker and wider adoption of coffee technologies to augment the process of capacity building amongst the small growers.

The Self Help Groups are small and informal voluntary groups of people / growers who come together to meet their common needs. On the other hand, the Self Help Groups are group of people / growers possessing a common perception, experience, problems and condition or situation who come together to share their experience / knowledge / ideas and to give and receive support from others with the same experience. Self Help Groups focus largely on community approach by channeling energies on contiguous and harmonious groups of the small coffee growers / farmers into various activities related to coffee cultivation that would eventually be of economic benefits to them. Self Help Groups are promoted in a way that facilitates the development of participatory approach and empowering culture to decision making.

Of late, the Sell' Help Groups in coffee are being used as a mechanism for improving productivity on the coffee farms through rejuvenation / revitalization measures. The Self Help Groups are also visualized as a powerful tool to evolve organized marketing for the benefit of the planting community at grass root level.

The concept of' Self-help Groups is largely oriented towards a group approach in order to encourage collective learning, promote leadership, address common constraints to create awareness among the growers, linkages with the Financial Institutions / NGOs / Govt. agencies to mobilize the required technical and financial resources and encourage On - farm and Off - farm micro enterprise activities among the members of the group and constituted / formed on the principle " Self help is the best help". Self Help Groups have evidently the potential to be very powerful engine of growth amongst the small coffee growers to better their socio - economic status by and large.

Genesis of Self Help Groups in Coffee and Their Present Status

The Coffee Board, evolved the Self Help Group scheme and launched it during the IX Five Year plan and encouraged by its success, it is being carried over to the X Five Year Plan also.

During the IX five year plan period of the Board, the concept of' constitution of Self Help Groups was largely focused up on by way of identification of groups with like minded small coffee growers in potential areas, registering such groups under Karnataka Society Act/Co-operative Act. The establishments of Self Help Groups have been done by enrolling a maximum of 50 small growers belonging to the same contiguous village after drawing the required bye-laws and formation of administrative committees from among the members. The Self Help Groups will follow all the formalities as stipulated under the Coop Society Act. The General body of the Self Help Groups will be empowered to take policy decisions and vested with overall powers. The Self Help Groups constituted by the Coffee Board are totally distinct from other Self Help Groups and have the following activities envisaged to carry on with the challenges being ahead of the coffee industry.

1. Production improvement programmes like construction of Water Storage structures, Procurement of Sprinkler units, Diesel Generator/ Electric Motor, raising of nurseries of planting materials, construction of ploy houses etc., apart from procurement of Hi-Tech (Improvised) sprayers, weed cutter and micro pruner, chain saw etc.,
2. Quality improvement programmes like infrastructures required for community pulping, establishment of ETPs., construction of store room / warehouse and establishment of Mini coffee curing works as well as Cupping centers.
3. Encouraging promoting of organic coffee, special and specialty coffees, production of compost and other forms of organic manures i.e. vermi compost and Bio - dynamic manure inclusive.
4. Integrated pest and disease management.
5. Value addition (a) Establishment of R & G units.
6. Raising and supply of planting materials (location Specific). The required technical +supports as well as liaison support are provided by the Extensionists of Coffee Board in all the above cases with their expertise to create awareness and necessity to constitute Self Help Groups for the betterment of planting community in particular and the Coffee Industry in general.

1. Act as nuclei for transfer of technology.
2. Encourage group/community approach or collective action to tackle multifarious problems connected with the agriculture irrespective of whether agricultural or commercial crops. Group approach or collective action is essential for adoption of post - harvest technology, promotion of infrastructural development and multi- institutional approaches / linkages and co - ordination with Govt. agencies / private agencies (NGOs), pest and diseases control, promotion of value added and high quality produces, marketing, integrated farming and sustainable agriculture.
3. Act as training centers to upgrade the skills of members in agriculture relating to agricultural as well as commercial crops.
4. Promote and extend scope for gender participation (i.e. women empowerment) in decision making on vital issues connected with self sustainability / reliance.
5. Promote common action programmes interacting with other groups. Govt. and private institutions / agencies for technical expertise / support as well as financial requirements.
6. Promote viable investment package for optimum returns per unit area.
7. Promote a cost effective delivery system.
8. Promote a cost effective technology for viable cultivation of crops as well as betterment of socio - economic status.
9. Promote team building and problem solving skills.

1. Specific activities undertaken by the Self Help Groups (i.e. as approved by the Board).
2. Amount sanctioned by the Board as one time grant covering specified/approved activities of each Self Help Group. Activities carried out other than the specified / approved ones like mini Self Help Groups for raising of nurseries, workshops / seminars conducted on associate crops, apart from coffee.
3. Social activities carried out.
4. Short comings / lapses observed with respect to documentation, submission of returns, renewal of membership and mobilization of corpus funds, maintenance of accounts, monitoring of activities, infrastructure development, establishment of market out lets, dependence for cost of certification etc.,
5. Suggestions made for further improvement of Self Help Groups.
6. Recommendations for continuing the Self Help Groups or other wise. Some of the common observations made in the performance of Self Help Groups are as under:
7. Out of 42 cases of regular Self Help Groups already constituted by the Board 22 Self Help Groups have neither renewed the membership (i.e. monthly basis/ yearly basis) nor any sincere efforts seem to have been put in for mobilizing funds nor increasing the corpus/reserve fund for the very sustenance of Self Help Groups.
8. Most of the Self Help Groups have conducted workshops/seminars on the cultivation aspects of coffee as well as other associate crops and availed of the benefits of the technologies thereof.
9. A few of the Self Help Groups have also carried out social activities such as organizing of health camps, yoga classes, road repair work and other social works.
10. Conduction of Study tours for the benefit of members.
11. Organizing of workshops on water harvesting techniques, dairy farming apart from integrated pest and disease management particularly on WSB and CBB.
12. Channelising the market out lets for the sale of raw coffee powder, organic and specialty coffees, apart from value added ones.
13. Integrated farming and sustainable coffee cultivation, Integration of indigenous technologies with that of modern technologies to improve the system of agriculture for increasing production/ productivity, improvement of quality for remunerative prices and for increasing profit per unit area, adoption of effective pollution abatement measures etc.,

1. Continuity of enrollment of membership and renewal of membership.
2. Documentation and maintenance of accounts for effective monitoring and accountability.
3. Production of accounts to the audit for verification at every yearly interval as per the bye -laws or Coop. Act.
4. Generation of funds by way of establishing the strong linkages with the Financial Institutions, NGOs, and other Co-operative institutions in addition to income generation out of the specified/approved activities.
5. Conduction of Self Help Groups meetings at periodic intervals.
6. Focused attention in organizing the workshops / seminars on quality improvement, integrated pest and disease management, integrated farming and diversified crops cultivation / low cost technology leading to sustainable agriculture with the required multi-institutional approaches irrespective of whether Central or State Government organizations besides NGOs / Cooperatives / other rural formations.
7. Strengthening of unity among the members of groups for sustainability and long life.
8. Involving more of gender participation and empowering culture in decision-making process.