After sahibs, commoners are Assam's new tea growers

By Syed Zarir Hussain Jun 28, 2007, 8:06 GMT

Doomdooma (Assam), June 28 (IANS) They were once the domain of aristocrats, with hardnosed British sahibs on horseback supervising them. But tea plantations in Assam have come full circle as hundreds of small farmers have taken to growing the crop.

The profession has now shifted from the rich to the common man, especially unemployed youths who have taken up tea cultivation as a business venture. Some even cultivate it in their backyards.

Monoram Gogoi was until recently wandering aimlessly after completing his post graduation in economics.

'I decided to grow tea in about 25 hectares of land sometime in 2002. Unlike the British sahibs who gave orders, I work alongside the workers for the whole day,' Gogoi old IANS.

He is already reaping the benefits, producing about 30,000 kg of green tea leaves annually.

The small tea growers sell the leaves to the nearby big plantations where it is processed - a kilogram of green tea leaves is sold at Rs.8 to Rs.12 depending on the market.

'There are more than 43,000 small tea growers in Assam producing about nine percent of the state's total annual production,' Basudeb Banerjee, chairman of the Tea Board of India, told IANS.

Assam is considered the heart of India's $1.5 billion tea industry and accounts for about 55 percent of the total annual production of 955 kg last year.

'Most of us were born amidst tea gardens and so we thought why not give a try to cultivating on our own as getting a government job in Assam is very tough. The plan clicked,' said Arindam Saikia, another small tea farmer.

Across this tea-growing belt in eastern Assam, people in large numbers have started growing the crop in 20 to 25 hectares of land, some even cultivating tea in their backyards.

'We have been provided with technical support and advice by experts at the Assam Agriculture University in Jorhat and also help from the Tocklai Tea Research Station for better yield and quality,' Gogoi said.

The Tea Board is now setting up a special cell to cater to the needs of the small tea cultivators - already the Board has helped set up 47 self-help groups comprising of about 15 members each to grow tea.

'The production cost for green tea leaves for small growers is just about 25 percent and so the profit margin is reasonably good,' said Madhusudan Khandait, secretary of the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha, the apex tea workers trade union.

'The fact that many of the youths are now taking up tea cultivation is a sign of prosperity and will surely ease the growing unemployment problem in the state,' Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told IANS.

Spurred by the mushrooming growth of small tea growers, the Indian commerce ministry recently took a team of young tea farmers from Assam to Kenya and Sri Lanka to help them get first hand knowledge about the success of small tea cultivation in the two countries.

'The idea was to give them exposure and get vital skills from tea growers in Kenya and Sri Lanka,' Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said.

The Indian tea industry was facing a crisis with prices dropping in the weekly auctions since 1998. The slump in prices was largely attributed to cheap and inferior quality teas produced by many new tea-growing countries, thereby pushing premium quality Indian teas to facing stiffer competition in the global market.

But the industry is showing signs of resurgence with prices firming up in the auctions and exports increasing as well.

A kilogram of good quality Assam tea sells at Rs.60, which is about Rs.2.5 higher than last year. Compared to 2005, exports have gone up by about eight million kilogram to 200 million kg last year.

'Despite the tea industry not doing very well in recent years, the income generated from the small plantations is good enough in comparison to doing nothing,' said Kaustav Saikia, a small tea grower in the eastern Dibrugarh district.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service