Pest attack and adverse weather condition in growing areas may lead to a decline in India?s tea output in 2010 by 15-20 million kg, DP Maheshwari, president, Tea Association of India, said.
India had produced 979 million kg of tea in 2009. Output in north India?s tea plantations is likely to be lower by 20 million kg because of heliopeltis disease attack on tea crop and adverse weather conditions, Maheshwari said on the sidelines of a two-day planters conference here Monday.
But production in south Indian plantations would be higher by 5 million kg by the end of December.
Prices in north India have been ruling high because of the output shortage while they have been down in south India.
In 2010, average tea prices are likely to be firm and may move up above last year?s levels, Maheshwari said. Supply tightness is expected to slowly rise as output is slowing in both large and small gardens, he said.
?In the last 10 years, organised tea gardens lost 50 million kg of tea while small growers? output rose. Now their output is also slowing,? Maheshwari said.
He expects tea shortage to be around 100 million kg at the close of the season.
Tea futures after 2012
Tea Board wants to introduce tea futures and will soon initiate the process to bring this about, Roshni Sen, deputy chairman of the board, said Monday. The aim is to launch tea futures during the 12th Plan (2012-17), Sen said. ?If we launch futures we will go foolproof. That?s why we are taking time,? Sen said.
Emission policy must include plantation sector, says official
Inclusion of interests of the plantation sector in cap and trade negotiations is necessary to explore the sector?s carbon credit potential, a government official said Monday.
Cap and trade policy, or emission trading policy, is a market-based approach to control pollution by offering economic incentives. ?The plantation sector should endeavour to include its interest in the negotiations,? said James Jacob, director of Rubber Research Institute of India.
In India, interests of plantation sector are not included in the emission trading policy as the sector comes under commerce ministry. The nodal ministry for climate change negotiations is ministry of environment and forests.
In carbon trading under Clean Development Mechanism, afforestation and reforestation credits have the least priority. Also, there are no buyers for afforestation and reforestation credits. Clean Development Mechanism is one of the mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol to help prevent harmful climate changes and achieve compliance on emission limits. Weather conditions have been changing in traditional plantation tracts of India over the past few years.
?The most significant manifestations of climate change are warmer temperatures and changing pattern of rainfall,? Jacob said in his paper ?Climate Change and Plantation Crops?. Availability of natural rubber could be affected due to these changes, he said.
Annual mean maximum temperature has risen by 0.5 degree Celsius per decade, Jacob said citing data collected since 1956 at the meteorological station at Kottayam in Kerala. Such increases in temperatures could affect rubber yield, he said.
