Tocklai Experimental Station. Telegraph picture

Jorhat, May 19: The Tocklai Experimental Station of the Tea Research Association will release two new tea clones during the scheduled World Tea Congress to be held here in November.

“Apart from the high yielding variety and good quality, these clones are being prepared keeping in mind the change in climatic conditions. They would be drought and waterlogging resistant,” a scientist at the world’s oldest tea research station said.

The scientist said these clones were in an advanced stage of development and would be ready to be released during the World Tea Congress at Tocklai for the first time.

Scientists from all over the world are expected to participate in the Congress, which is being held as part of the concluding function of the centenary celebrations of Tocklai.

The institute has already developed over 150 tea clones, most of which are high yielding varieties and of good quality. But the new sets of clones are being prepared for the tea plant to cope with the changing climatic condition.

“Most of the clones developed by our institute earlier are of high yielding variety and good quality but global warming and its impact on the climate in recent times has forced us to work on clones which can cope with the changing climate. The two clones we are working on will also have the unique feature of Assam tea — strong and bright liquor,” the scientist said.

Studies conducted at Tocklai reveal that some tea-growing areas in the state have witnessed a rise of minimum temperature from 1 to 1.5 degrees and about 200mm decrease in the average annual rainfall in the last 90 years. Scientists said these climatic changes were having an impact on tea bushes.

Assam did witness an unprecedented dry season in 2008-09 that hit the tea industry hard. It recorded a drop of about 30 per cent in production during that period.

Last year, heavy rainfall during the early part of the production season, resulting in unprecedented attack by insects on the tea bush and waterlogging in tea estates, had also hit the tea industry with production going down by nearly 16 million kg.

These unprecedented changes in climatic conditions sounded an alarm in the tea industry, which is totally dependent on the weather.

Hitherto, the climate in Assam was perfect for tea production with even distribution of rainfall and bright sunshine during the production season. Alarmed by these changes in the climate, scientists at Tocklai called upon the industry to shift to artificial irrigation facilities because of the unreliability of the weather. Many gardens in the state have already shifted to artificial irrigation facilities.