Study area
The Western Ghats that run parallel to the west coast is endowed richly
with different categories of forests. Coffee is an important plantation
crop, mainly confined to the hills of South India, where Karnataka,
Kerala and Tamil Nadu form the major traditional coffee growing regions
with an area of 2.13, 0.84 and 0.31 lakh ha with a production of 2.52,
0.69 and 0.19 lakh tonnes respectively. The investigation included
Chikmagalur district of Karnataka and Wayanad and Idukki districts of
Kerala, located in the Western Ghats experiencing high rainfall and hot
per-humid, hot moist sub-humid and hot humid tropical climates.
Chikmagalur district lies in the north-eastern hills of Western Ghats
and Balehonnur belonging to the Chikmagalur district receives an average
annual rainfall of 2792 mm, mainly from the south west monsoon during
the months of June to September. Wayanad and Idukki districts of Kerala
receive average annual rainfall of 2517 mm and 2305 mm respectively.
Balehonnur, Wayanad and Idukki experience hot per-humid, hot moist
sub-humid and hot humid tropical climate respectively and study area is
depicted on a location map (Fig.1).