An amount of Rs.200 crore, accounting for around 14 per cent of the Rs.1,425 crore XII Plan allocation for the tea sector, has been made for the development of the small growers sector, which is emerging as a potent force in the Indian tea industry.
This is the first time that the sector has received an allocation in this manner and includes a component for growing tea in non-traditional areas.
Union Commerce Ministry officials said that special focus on the development of small holdings was a major feature of the government’s plan to develop the tea sector. Tea plantation unit with area less than 10.1 hectare is considered small. They produce green tea leaf, a highly perishable input which is sold to tea factories for processing into ‘made-tea’.
The proposals include a 30 per cent subsidy for new planting/replanting and rejuvenation of the tea bushes, irrigation subsidy and an educational stipend for small growers’ children. The small growers would also get funds support for setting up factories and for commencing organic tea production, it was learnt.
Over 30 per cent of India’s annual production of 1,100 million kg. now comes from the two lakh STG. Their production cost is lower as they are not covered by the Plantation Labour Act, which mandate certain benefits given to the garden workers. The organised tea sector supplements their own crop with output from the STG.
However, even as the sector is steadily gaining in importance, it remains vulnerable to price volatility, which often leads to distress sale of the highly perishable produce at below cost of production.
Bijoy Chakraborty, President of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers’ Association (CISTA) says that small tea growers are the lowest level of the tea production eco-system although they are engaged in a gamut of tea plantation activities. The CISTA has been appealing to the Union Minister of State for commerce, finance and corporate affairs Nirmala Sitharaman, for support for capacity-building.
