Kolkata: Sanjay Kumar Sharma has been an assistant manager at the Soongachi tea estate in the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal for the past 25 years.
The garden spread over 700 hectares produces Crush Tear and Curl (CTC) tea for domestic consumption. Sanjay however, says the ongoing year has been worse for the tea industry and production has fallen drastically, hitting them hard.
“I have been working in this garden for over two decades but have never faced such a situation earlier. The rainfall has become erratic with irregular sunshine days that have been dampening the crops leading to the rise of diseases which were never witnessed before. The situation is moving from bad to worse every year as the weather is becoming unfriendly for the tea industry,” he says.
“Our annual production stood at 16.48 lakh kilograms (kg) in 2015 as against 9.14 kg (18 October) in this year. The situation is not conducive for our industry.”
Climate change hitting hard
Situated around 650 kilometres from Kolkata, the state capital, the northern portion of West Bengal is full of lush tree gardens and pleasant aromatic smells that mesmerize the outsider while giving a soothing relief from the chaos of the outside world. Tea is produced in the Dooars, Terai and Darjeeling areas of Bengal.
But beneath the beauty of nature lies the tale of the harsh climatic conditions hitting the tea gardens badly and causing severe losses to the tea garden owners.
The plains of north Bengal have around 770 tea gardens that produce CTC tea which is consumed domestically while Darjeeling has 87 tea gardens, producing one of the best quality teas known for its premium quality and exported worldwide.
Sam Varghese, Chief Advisory Officer at Tea Research Association (TRA) in Jalpaiguri district conceded that the indifferent weather has been impacting the tea production, “We witnessed a dry spell from October, last year till May which was not good for the crop as tea bushes need intermittent rains. Again, June witnessed heavy showers that affected the crop and also took away the top soil in the hills. The frequency of rains is similar but they have become erratic. The long spells of heat wave are also damaging the crops.”
“This has been leading to the spread of diseases like blister blight and looper caterpillar that damage the tea leaves and also increases the cost of production in terms of pest control measures. We are working to develop a climate-resilient variety of tea that would not be affected by climate change,” he added.
The situation is no different in neighbouring Assam where production has declined due to harsh climatic conditions. Assam has around 2000 tea gardens spread in Assam Valley and Cachar that also produce CTC tea for domestic purposes.
Rajiv Gupta, senior manager at Jalinga tea estate in Cachar, told EastMojo that frequent hailstorms damaged the crops. “The heat waves during summers were extreme, with temperatures crossing 40 degrees while the mercury level ideal for tea cultivation should be around 32 degrees Celsius. We usually produce around 8 lakh kg of tea per year but it is likely to drop to 5.5 lakh kg by this year-end.”
He further pointed out that the tea garden has to shut at year-end, every year for winter. However, the management has to pay the wages even in closed gardens. “The adverse climatic conditions coupled with worker wages have impacted us as lower production is directly proportionate to escalating production cost,” he added.
Is Nepal a threat to our tea industry?
Even Darjeeling, known for its picturesque natural settings and cool weather, also faced a drop in production.
“The production of Darjeeling tea, which stood at 10 million kg around a decade ago, has dropped 50 per cent. Climate change is one of the important reasons for the downfall. The garden owners face higher costs due to higher wages and other statutory compliances. The rainfall and sunshine pattern are changing which are posing a disastrous effect on tea entrepreneurs,” said Soumen Mazumdar.
Apart from climate change, the growers in Darjeeling are also facing strong competition from neighbouring Nepal which has been devouring their business. “Nepal is posing as a serious headache for us as the climatic conditions are almost similar to Darjeeling. Unlike here, Nepal has small growers who supply tea leaves in bottle leaf factories which are then processed into tea. This results in a drop in production cost and some unscrupulous traders also brand Nepal tea as Himalayan tea confusing the buyer in the International market as it isn’t possible for a common man to distinguish between Nepal and Darjeeling tea due to almost similar taste,” added Soumen.
Moreover, India has a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Nepal that helps the latter export tea to India. However, other countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are charged 100 per cent on their import duty.
Drop in production across India
Apart from Darjeeling, the production of CTC, green and orthodox tea stood at 1390 million kg in India. It dropped to 1360 million kg last year and it’s feared that the production might drop further by 50-60 million by the end of this year.
“The rainfall in the northeast has declined by 65 mm in the past decade and torrential rainfalls are lasting for over a week in a stretch, damaging the crops. The tea industry is a blend of rainfall, sunshine and soil which should be evenly distributed. But the situation is not the same anymore,” pointed out P.K. Bhattacharjee, secretary general of Tea Association of India.
“The situation is distressing and proper steps have to be taken to safeguard the industry as many owners are willing to sell their loss-making but unfortunately nobody is interested in venturing into the industry passing through rough weather,” he added.
Also Read: Your traditional food from Northeast may be very contaminated, says ICMR
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