SMALL-GROWERS TEA PLANTATIONS IN UTTARAKHAND

Abstract

The Uttarakhand Tea development project was launched in 1993 to re-introduce tea in this region which was the first area in India to introduce tea plantations during the early 19th century. The original tea plantation flourished well till they were abandoned in the beginning of the 20th century due to socio-economic factors. In this project, 485 farmers have been assisted till date to plant 573 hectares of tea during 2008-09, that utilised 3,58,000 mandays, for which Rs 29 million(US$600,000) was paid as wages. Apart from generating employment in these hilly tracts on the land that was lying idle, quality tea comparable to Darjeeling, was produced. A very small quantity of white tea made by special technique on order from Korea, fetched a record price of $800 per kg. The tea plantations on otherwise unused land, are environmentally friendly and are likely to become economically self sustaining in due course of time, turning the small scale tea enterprise into an engine of economic growth of the individual grower, the family involved and the community as a whole.