Tea is one of the most popular beverages in the world. Yet, it has also had its fair share of controversies since its inception as an industry by the British in India, specifically Assam. The latest is its rejection by a host of Western countries due to the heavy amount of pesticides detected in the teas. The industry can not do without pesticides because the delicate tea leaves plucked and processed for your morning cup have several biological enemies, which need to be controlled and kept at bay. But recent developments point toward a darker pattern where pesticides are being misused with detrimental effects on the quality and the beverage consumers.
But then, why has it taken such a turn where products used to protect the leaves are destroying the beverage? Experts point out multiple reasons, including environmental, socio-economic, socio-cultural, and lack of awareness, to name a few.
Among environmental factors, the changing climate patterns have made the industry rely on synthetic production boosters, which, in turn, also boosts the number of pests that thrive on the leaves. The more pest control measures and spraying of pesticides, the more resistant these pests become to the chemicals, creating a demand for stronger and more damaging pest-control chemicals year after year. This cyclical process is unsustainable and eventually harms the end consumers.
Prevalent socio-economic conditions in the northeast, mainly Assam, which has been badly affected by militancy, labour unrest, and recently COVID-19, have impacted the labour and administrative operations of the tea gardens. As a result, several previously welfare gardens have turned sick, and some sick gardens have become defunct and sold off as real estate. The rest which can still produce tea are doing it with reduced capabilities and resources to cater to a previously existing market with stable demand. And as it is for all businesses, if a garden can not produce and register a profit, stakeholders pay. So to keep a consistent level of production output, the established names have to resort to production boosting systems which lets loose the hellish cycle of pest control and pesticide-related evils.
Home-made green tea
Over the past two decades or so, a section of land-owning Assamese citizens have adopted the small tea growers’ philosophy and have started producing green tea leaves on their small farms to get into the profitable tea business. This movement of sorts has created a socio-cultural-economic impact on the tea production industry. The established industry regularly buys green leaves from small to medium-scale producers to produce processed tea. But this process, according to the industry professionals, has some drawbacks, mainly in creating a consistent quality of production tea and thus fixing a subsequent price for the produced tea. Also, since the established industry produces every kilogram of their green leaves under controlled conditions and at a fraction of the price, the green leaf produce of small tea growers compete with the gardens by pumping up the volume of their output to make all ends meet. Moreover, even if a small tea grower desires to produce organic green leaves, there are only a few far-flung buyers of their green leaves, making the scenario bleak for organic producers.
The Organic Route
All these factors play important roles behind the increase in toxicity of your favourite beverage produced in Assam. One time-proven solution that would be beneficial for all would be the conversion of the established gardens into organic gardens, which no doubt is a gradual and time-consuming process but will eventually be a win-win situation for all. It is also true that consumers would initially pay a premium for their favourite beverage but wouldn’t it be better than consuming cheap carcinogens along with the drink? The price of organic green tea leaves is higher than their chemical-laced garden produce, and it would make sense for an ailing industry to see their product sold at auction centres at a higher price rather than getting wasted for the high level of toxicity & rejected for being in-consumable to humans. Small tea growers who sell the bulk of their green leaves to established factories would be happy enough to receive a higher price for their products and would oblige willingly to such an organic initiative. Noteworthy is that by doing so, the tea industry would not only save the soil and environment of the state from further damage but also aid in preventing harmful cancers for both consumers and involved stakeholders.
People who went organic
Raju Deka is the secretary of the regional committee of the small tea grower’s association), an organic tea grower and enthusiast who had converted his small farm from inorganic to organic, has undertaken several organic tea farming training and regularly participates to impart organic farming training to growers in upper Assam. He has been driven by the sole aim of building awareness about organic farming. He doesn’t ignore that organic farming would initially create an income scarcity, but eventually, the growers, consumers and the environment would be winners. According to him, the state government should proactively take steps in building certification bodies like the APEDA, and USDA, and certify gardens and their products as organic, as the Chinese have been so successful in doing. He says that rather than off-the-shelf organic products, growers should create their home solutions for manuring and pest control which are time-proven and cost-effective solutions for small growers.
Need for infrastructure push
Bolin Hatibaruah, organic tea grower and tea plantation owner, mentions the lack of technology & infrastructure facilities for the small tea growers in the state. “There are a few tea apps that are very rudimentary and only allow a grower to keep track of his produce by date and volume. Other than that, there is no scope for tea growers to unify under umbrellas of small co-operatives, collect funds for rainy days or help each other out by sharing know-how, available resources like labour, transport, etc. that lie at their disposal. An interactive umbrella application for a mobile phone that takes care of the small tea grower’s business would hugely help the industry and help in actively promoting organic farming in the state,” he told this writer.
Going back to the history of the tea industry under the British government, which saw the establishment of tea as a huge industry, it is the right time now for the government to take necessary measures so that the state can make good the losses incurred during the last decades. Doing so will help the tea industry, including our small tea growers, to carry the flag of organic and healthy tea far ahead into the future that one can dream of now.
Also read | Eastern Air Command Air Marshal visits Assam, Arunachal
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