Small tea growers (STGs) in the country, which contribute to more than 30% of country’s tea production, have formally been offered a representation in the Tea Board. This move would enable them to get various financial incentives from the government.
The Tea Board, a commodity board under the commerce ministry mostly represents owners of the tea estate, big producers, representatives from the tea producing states has agreed to include Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers’ Association (CISTA) as ‘permanent special invite’.
“We have been urging the Tea Board for granting us a permanent membership so that we articulate our demands at the national level,” Satyajit Bordoloi, president of CISTA, a representative body of small tree growers told FE. More than 2.5 lakh STGs contribute close to 30% of the country’s annual tea production. India produced about 955 million kgs of tea in the year 2007.
“Due to absence of any processing facilities, we are forced to supply tea to the bough-leaf factories, which reduces our role in determining prices,” Bordolai said. STGs do not have access to wear housing and quality control equipment as only 10% of small tea growers are members of Tea Board.
At present, the tea estates of less than 25 acres are regarded as small-holdings. While 39% of the small tea gardens are in Assam, Tamil Nadu has 34% of the gardens and North Bengal and Kerala have 24% and 10% of the gardens respectively.
CISTA in its demand to Union minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh urged for creation of a separate directorate for STGs within the Tea Board of India. “As we contribute more than 30% of the country’s tea production, at least similar per cent of annual cess collected should be exclusively earmarked for establishing this directorate and other supports,” Bordoloi said.
India’s main competitors in the international arena, Kenya and Sri Lanka, have strong institutional set ups for development of small tea.
They contribute 62% of the total production in the two countries.