Nandini Goswami

Kolkata: It has been a hard work for Dhananjoy Chowdhury, Madhav Nanadi, Binayak Sil, Nimchand Mitruka and Horen Sarkar all these years proving to be successful “small tea planters”.

Today the group of tea planters from North Bengal is a happy lot. Being continuously under the scanner by the biggies in tea trade for production of quality teas, all of them have decided to form a self-help group (SHG) within themselves.

They are not the only ones to do so. As many as 200 SHGs, covering almost 10,000 small tea growers across tea-growing states, are being formed.

DNA had first reported on the lives of tea growers a year back. Since then and now, the entire population of small tea growers, particularly in north India, has grown manifold. Estimates suggest that there are almost 70,000 small growers in south India and 50,000 in Assam and West Bengal.

They are a formidable lot, who grow teas on less than 25 acres of land producing almost 250 million kg of tea.

The Tea Board is lending a helping hand to this fast-growing segment of tea planters. In a unique exercise with the help of government assistance, 200 SHGs are being created to help tea planters tide competition, establish good agricultural practices and produce good quality teas.

“The funds earmarked under the 11th Five Year Plan have provided special assistance to small grower category.Apart from providing subsidies, the Tea Board through its schemes would provide larger support,” Basudeb Banerjee, chairman Tea Board told DNA Money.

“We are starting with 200 SHGs and once we get a good response, we could increase the number and get back to the Planning Commission for more funds during the Plan period,” he said.

Kamal Jana, a small grower based in Dooars, said, “We do face a lot of difficulties on logistics. For example, at times small growers do not have the money to set up a small shed or even processing facilities of their own. Forming a SHG would be of immense help in the long run. It has been successful in non-tea activities in a big way.”

The SHGs would pick one person from each group and provide training on better agricultural practices. “We would address the problem of quality levelled against small growers. Moreover, providing impetus to small growers would enable India to be a low-cost producer of tea in global markets. Kenya and Sri Lanka, the largest tea growing countries, have much lower cost of production,” Banerjee said.

Although the small growers do not fit in the real planter category like the Magors, Goodrickes, Duncans or Warrens, they are a force to reckon with given the fact that they contribute to almost 25% of the total tea production in the country.

Source : DNA