Scarce resources?

Guwahati, Jan. 6: The year 2008, projected as a comeback year for the tea industry, started on a jarring note with Indian Potash Limited (IPL), supplier of imported fertiliser, expressing its inability to sell it at the rate fixed by the Tea Board.

The reason cited by the company is high cost escalation of muriate of potash (MoP), essential to the growth of tea plant.

The crisis was discussed threadbare on Friday at a meeting attended by state officials a representative each from the Tea Board and the IPL.

Quoting the company’s representative Abhijit Sinha, state agriculture commissioner J.P. Meena said prices had shot up from $270 to $400 per metric tonne since the despatch of the last consignment.

The industry, however, has been getting it at a subsidised rate of Rs 6,000 a metric tonne.

The annual fertiliser requirement is 50,000 metric tonne.

Supply has been stopped since October when the consignments are supposed to land and it continues till March in instalments.

The executive director Tea Board, Northeast, C. Saikia, who attended the meeting, said the company had stopped supply without intimation.

The matter had been taken up at a higher level and steps would be initiated, he said. Sinha, however, refused to comment.

Meena said the state government had urged the Centre to save the tea industry from huge losses.

Assam agriculture minister Pramila Rani Brahma said a probe had been ordered into allegations that the supplier was diverting the consignment meant for Assam to other states.

“MoP is an essential fertiliser for tea plant. It is required not only for healthy growth of tea plants but for healthy foliage. Lack of it will result in decline in production,” Amrit Dutta, a scientist at the Tocklai Experimental Station, said.

“This is really scary. It will push us back to the worst years,” the chairman of the Northeast Tea Association, Manoj Jalan, said.

The chairman of the Assam Tea Planters’ Association (ATPA), Raj Baruah, said the price of fertiliser in the open market — in the few outlets where it is available, is over Rs 10,000 per metric tonne.