A harvester machine in action

Silchar, Feb. 15: The deft fingers plucking two leaves and a bud in Assam tea gardens could soon be holding mechanical harvesters that will help improve plucking both in terms of quality and quantity, if suggestions made by industry honchos are accepted.

At the 111th annual general meeting of the Surma valley branch of Indian Tea Association (ITA) at Cachar Club in Silchar, chairman K.A. Mahabir mooted the idea of the introducing mechanical harvesters in Cachar tea region which has more than 100 gardens.

He said tea gardens in Cachar were facing competition from the job scheme under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, as labourers find them more lucrative than the daily wages at the gardens.

The mechanical harvesters, priced at Rs 1.5 lakh, would also be “very cost effective” and are already popular in China, Vietnam and Keyna.

He also demanded a subsidy from the Tea Board to buy these machines.

Mahabir, however, allayed fears of worker retrenchment, women tea labourers in particular, asserting that the easy-to-handle machines would only help the labourers improve their plucking quality.

“Behind each machine, a human hand will be needed to operate it,” he said.

Secretary general of the Surma valley branch of the association, M. Das Gupta, also expressed concern over the low annual output of CTC tea in Cachar gardens in 2010-11.

Aenakhal tea estate in Hailakandi district, a 700-hectare property of the Bhuwalka Trading and Tea Company Limited which produces around 15 lakh kg of superior CTC tea, has already introduced the gadgets. The tea association also suggested modification in the special purpose tea fund as part of its proposals to the Centre for the 12th Five Year plan.

Das Gupta said the scheme under the Union ministry of commerce and industry that extends financial support to the ailing tea estates should now be revamped in keeping with the chan- ged circumstances of the industry.

He said the Indian Tea Association wants the tea fund to be provided on a company basis and not on individual garden basis in a bid to allow the cash-strapped tea industry to gain more flexibility in availing of loans.

At present, under the fund norms, only tea gardens with 50-year-old plants are eligible for the benefit.

Das Gupta, however, suggested that the low-yielding bushes which are less than 50 years of age should also be considered for this scheme.

The secretary general wants the 25 per cent subsidy to be enhanced to 50 per cent to undertake tasks of uprooting the uneconomic tea bushes for replanting.