Tea special
AG R I C U LT U R E
season which is the off season for tea plantation. But season specific limiting of the scheme is not practically feasible for government. So it remains an unmanageable problem. There are also several other social issues that influence the overall production of tea. In India, majority of the tea garden workers are tribal people and the remaining are the migrated ones. They are the most exploited people who face gender inequality, poor living conditions, little access to healthcare and low representation etc. BBC’s report in 2016 states that with abysmally low wages tea workers face a daily struggle to survive and have no means for advancement. Tea cultivation has multiple environmental effects. Studies say that the main harmful environmental impact of tea cultivation is habitat destruction. Large areas of forest have been cleared to make way for tea plantations. In North East India, areas which used to be a combination of forest and grassland have been converted to tea
ORIGIN OF TEA Every time you drink a cup of tea, you are taking part in a piece of history. It is said that tea was accidentally discovered in China, in 2737 BC, by Emperor Shen Nung, when a few tea leaves fell into his pot of boiling water. However, the habit of drinking tea leaves stepped in a tea pot became popular only during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
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plantations. In East Africa, forests are still being cleared for new plantations. Land clearance also alters the natural flow of water, leading to an increase in soil erosion, loss of wetland habitats and the pollution of rivers and lakes. Application of pesticides is another major cause of environmental risks. As tea is cultivated as a monocrop, they provide ideal conditions for pests, resulting in the use of toxic pesticides. Recently four elephants were found dead in Kaziranga National Park, Assam, after they wandered into a tea plantation and ate grass which had been sprayed with pesticides. The deaths of cows and vultures in the Assam region have also been blamed on pesticides and have led to the urgency for its ban. Recent reports say that intensive fertilizer and pesticide use has contributed to a fall in the market value of tea especially in quality conscious global markets. Change in climatic condition is also a major cause of the variation in tea production. It affects both the production and quality of the tea leaves. One of the biggest challenges facing the tea industry is erratic rainfall, resulting in low yield. Experts say tea gardens in Assam, the major producing state, once benefitted from the right balance between rainfall and sunlight. Now they worry that balance has been lost. The production of Darjeeling tea has also come down drastically. In 2012, the annual tea production stood at 10 million kg, which fell to 9 million kg in 2017. The study done from 1993 to 2012 found that climate change has lead to a decline in overall production of Darjeeling tea in terms of green leaf production per hectare. The production of green tea, which stood at 1,828.47 kg per hectare in 1993, dropped to 1,061.12 kg in 2012. Recently, some of the tea gardens in the north
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