Guwahati: The Tea Board of India has initiated the process of issuing identity cards with a QR (quick response) code to the small tea growers of Assam.
Through these cards, the authorities will now be able to record the quality and quantity of the leaf of small tea growers for sale, along with the date and time.
The data generated through the QR code will be used to capture the growers' details with a unique ID number. The first batch of cards was distributed at Bongaigaon in the presence of the executive director, Northeast, and the members of the small tea growers association of the district.
The cards were issued on Saturday by the board's executive director, Guwahati, Sanjio Kumar.
The board said the identity cards were a long-standing demand of small tea growers. The process to provide small tea growers with an identity card with photograph and biometric features stored in a memory chip was started in 2013. The board has so far collected the records of 88,000 small tea growers from Assam alone and more than 1 lakh for the entire Northeast and provided nearly 75,000 ID cards.
The process to improve the system was under way, as well as the search for new technology to streamline the leaf collection and sale with the help of the ID cards. Finally, the board decided last year to replace the existing ID card with biometric features.
"The ID card with QR code currently issued to the small growers shall be used to buy and sell green leaf from small tea growers through a mobile app. Small tea growers can record the quality and quantity of leaf for sale to the factories along with the date and time of sale. The price has been kept optional and the buyer of the green leaf, the bought leaf factories, will be able to buy the leaf from the small tea growers. The QR code in the ID card of individual growers shall be used to capture the growers' details with a unique ID number."
The board said the analysis of back end data shall be used to determine the training requirement of a particular place, plucking round, plant protection code compliance and requirement of a new factory. Moreover, the traceability of source of green leaf shall be easier as the app will have a feature for the factories to record the trough number and the growers' details whose green leaf is stored in the particular trough.
"This innovation shall bring in transparency to sale of green leaf with mapping of growers supplying green leaf to individual factories and implementation of direct benefit transfer to individual growers' accounts," it said.
