Learning more about plantations

Siliguri, Dec. 31: Small tea growers of the region have demanded that the Tea Research Association’s substations at Bengdubi in the Terai and Nagracata in the Dooars be upgraded to Extension Service Centres.

The demand, they said, follows a two-day tour of 25 small growers to the Nagracata substation this week.

“Growers from North Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri districts and also those from Siliguri subdivision participated in the tour. There they learnt about plant pathology and techniques of maintaining plantations,” said Bijoygopal Chakrobarty, convener, United Forum of Small Tea Growers’ Associations. “We want to learn more about cultivation of tea. And for that, we want these research stations to act as extension centres. Assistance from them would help us improve the quality of tealeaves and the yield in our plantations.”

According to him, the growers will have a meeting with tea board officials in January, in which, they will forward the proposal.

The two-day tour was organised jointly by the small tea growers’ association and the Centre for Education and Communication, a Delhi-based NGO working on sustainable livelihood of small tea growers across the country.

At present, there are 15,000 small tea growers in the region who have plantations spread across 50,000 acres of land. Last year, 56 million kg of tea was produced from the sector, which made up 25 per cent of the total yield in the region.

During the tour, the team was also taken to the Kurti tea estate in the Dooars and other small tea plantations. “At Kurti the manager, himself, took showed them around where they learnt how pruning and maintenance of tea bushes are done in different climatic conditions,” Chakrobarty said. “Given the fact that most of these growers still do not know enough about the crop, such visits are important.”

The team also went to see the projects conducted by Panbari Small Tea Growers’ Society, the first self-help group of growers, set up in the region.