TEA BOARD OF INDIATEA BOARD OF INDIA

Development of Small Tea Holdings in India

Small tea growers (STG) in India

• Growers with area up to 10.12 ha are considered as small tea growers.

• Cultivation of tea by STG began in 1920s in small scale in South India and spread to NE India in late1980s

• Currently, there are ~ 200000 growers cultivating tea in ~ 160 000 hectares

• The contribution from small sector has gone up from 5% in early 90s to 31% now and it is expected to touch 50% within next few years.

• In absolute terms production volume is around 350 million kgs. In its absence India would have become net importer of tea for meeting domestic demand.

Production and share of Small Sector in India

Year Production million kg

%Share in total production

2011 316.73 28.39%

2012 363.09 32.24%

2013 374.91 31.23%

Problems of Small growers• Because of their scattered small

size holdings, small tea growers are by and large unorganized.

 • They have no processing facilities

of their own and supply their green leaf to private bought leaf factories or estate factories either directly or through leaf collection agents.

• Presently there are >600 BLFs

Operation of small sector in India  

Agents

          

BLFs

Auction

BUYER

DIRECT DIRECT SALE

PROCUREMENT OF GREEN LEAVES

MANUFACTURING OF MADE TEA

MARKETING OF MADE TEA

Small Growers

Mainly (80%) through green leaf agents who procure leaf from small growers

              No close linkage with small growers

    Average Production Capacity 0.5 – 0.6 Mn. Kgs. per year

Technologically at or near par with estate sector ;Yet quality perceived to be lower as compared to estate sector

Mainly (90%) through Direct Sales /Private Treaties,

SWOT ANALYSIS -• Strength• Low cost of production• Young age profile with high yield potential• Weakness• Lack of capital, skills & technology• Fragmented, uneconomic holdings• Opportunity

• Low investment needed• Improve yields and quality with dramatic

results• Threat• Social unrest likely if price does not improve

Institutional Framework for development of Small holdings in India

• For helping the growers for improving their farm productivity and quality of their produce, and

• providing them with a market access to ensure a reasonable returns

• A separate Small Grower Development Directorate with adequate technical man power has been set up in 2013.

Small Grower Development directorate

The tasks assigned are:•Enumeration of STGS and issue smart cards for becoming members of primary producer groups for availing the common benefits and also for supplying green leaf to the tea factories registered with Tea Board•Better extension services•Better management from plantation to marketing-Improvement of quality & value addition-Development of Export potential•Better price realization via Price Sharing formula

Smart Card for the Small Growers – Front View

Smart Card – Back view

Chief Minister of Assam Sjt Tarun Gogoi, handing overSmart card to a Small Tea Grower at a function held in

Tezpur on 28th April 2012.

Steps taken to help small growers …

Financial assistance is extended for :

• Field Development - new planting, replanting, rejuvenation pruning and infilling the vacancies,

• creation of irrigation facilities, • organizing self help groups (SHG), • participation in the study tours, • setting up of nurseries,• organizing training programes and

extension services • establishing tea processing factories by

SHGs and micro and mini factories by individual or group of small growers .

Price sharing formula •In order to ensure that the small tea growers get a reasonable price for their green leaf this formula was notified under Tea marketing Control Order(TMCO)in 2004 • It provides for equitable sharing of the tea price between the growers and the manufacturers •It has taken in to account the cost of production of green leaf in the small holdings and cost of manufacturing and marketing by the Bought Leaf Factories.

Quality upgradation programme

• This programme was first launched in South India in 2000 and it was extended to N.E. Region and other parts in 2002.

• The objective is to create wide awareness amongst the small tea growers and manufacturers about the need to upgrade the quality of their produce.

 • The linkage with the factories with the

quality tea procurement and service centers has resulted in getting consistently higher prices and thereby ensuring remunerative prices for the green leaf supplied by the small growers.

Study Tours •Study tours are being organized for the small growers to visit various tea growing regions within the country and also abroad.

•Normally, the growers from N.E states and West Bengal are sent to South India and growers from South India are taken to Assam and North Bengal.

•Entire cost of travel and boarding and lodging is borne by Tea Board.

Setting up of Self Help groups (SHGs)

Growers are encouraged to set up collectives - for easy technical support and establishing direct linkage with factories to get a reasonable price. •Financial assistance is given to SHGs :• for setting up of leaf collection centers , purchase of weighing balances and leaf carry bags/plastic crates etc. (100% grant)• purchase of transport vehicles (50% grant)•Setting up of Tea processing factories – micro/mini/big (40% grant)•Revolving corpus fund for procurement of field inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, sprayers, plucking and pruning machines etc.

The StrategyIntegration of the chain

Assured returns to the STGs & BLFs

Strive for better yield and good manufacturing practice

Support for export and value addition

The Tasks Ahead

• Tasks that are to be undertaken parallely in order to achieve the total integrated development of the sector.

• 1.Legislation & Policies

• 2. MIS

• 3. Post Harvest Linkage

• 4. Market Linkage

• 5. Quality Upgradation

Task 1 – Legislation & Policies

1.Compulsory disclosure of leaf purchased, processed and sold through auction or otherwise by all BLF in value & volume

2.The state governments to formalize the ownership of all the lands under cultivation having no title deed.

Task 2 – MIS

1.Create & maintain exhaustive database for the STGs, their area under cultivation, status of land & yield.

2.Maintain Database of green leaf collection centers and dispatches.

3.Create exhaustive database of the BLFs & Estate factories buying green leaves from outside.

4.Also maintain structured database of the returns submitted by the BLFs.

5. Integration of the above database

Task 3 – Post Harvest Linkage

• Formation of Collectives– to handle the post harvest management collectively.

• - Modalities of formation of groups

• Details of members, governing body, legislation etc

• Support required for the groups

• - for setting up leaf collection centers

• - for transportation of green leaves

• Linkage with the BLFs

Task 4 – Market Linkage

• Explore possibilities of market linkage for export & domestic market.

• Design marketing link by setting up a consortium.

• Decide on Blending & Packaging requirements

• Plan support required for marketing

Task 5 – Quality Upgradation

• Adopting best plucking practices & transportation norms.

• Extension activities for improved crop husbandry

• Quality standard certification.

- All issues related to soil conditions, pruning practices, seeds & clones, area expansion, increase in yield, pesticides & manure,

• Quality issues related to Tea Processing

Thank you